GST E-way Bill Concept Simplified
Introduction
A waybill is a receipt or a document issued by a carrier giving
details and instructions relating to the shipment of a consignment of goods and
the details include name of consignor, consignee, the point of origin of the
consignment, its destination, and route.
Electronic Way Bill (E-Way Bill) is basically a compliance mechanism
wherein by way of a digital interface the person causing the movement of goods
uploads the relevant information prior to the commencement of movement of goods
and generates e-way bill on the GST portal.

Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017 provides for the e-way bill mechanism
and in this context it is important to note that "information is to be
furnished prior to the commencement of movement of goods" and "is
to
be issued whether the movement is in relation to a
supply or for reasons other than supply".
E-Way Bill under GST
E-way bill is an electronic document generated on the GST portal
evidencing movement of goods. It has two Components-Part A comprising of
details of GSTI N of recipient, place of delivery (PIN Code), invoice or
challan number and date, value of goods, HSN code, transport document number
(Goods Receipt Number or Railway Receipt Number or Airway Bill Number or Bill
of Lading Number) and reasons for transportation; and Part B comprising of
transporter details (Vehicle number).
As per Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017,every registered person who
causes movement of goods (which may not necessarily be on account of supply) of
consignment value more than Rs. 50000/- is required to furnish above mentioned
information in part A of e-way bill. The part B containing transport details
helps in generation of e-way bill.
Who should generate the e-way bill and why?
E-way bill is to be generated by the consignor or consignee himself if
the transportation is being done in own/hired conveyance or by railways by air
or by Vessel. If the goods are handed over to a transporter for transportation
by road, E-way bill is to be generated by the Transporter. Where neither the
consignor nor consignee generates the e-way bill and the value of goods is more
than Rs.50,000/- it shall be the responsibility of the transporter to generate
it.
Further, it has been provided that where goods are sent by a principal
located in one State to a job worker located in any other State, the e-way bill
shall be generated by the principal irrespective of the value of the
consignment.
Also, where handicraft goods are transported from one State to another by
a person who has been exempted from the requirement of obtaining registration,
thee-way bill shall be generated by the said person irrespective of the value
of the consignment.
How is it generated?
An e-way bill contains two parts- Part A to be furnished by the person
who is causing movement of goods of consignment value exceeding Rs.50,000/- and
part B (transport details) to be furnished by the person who is transporting
the goods. Where the goods are transported by a registered personwhether as
consignor or recipient, the said person shall have to generate the e-way bill
by furnishing information in part B on the GST common portal.
Where the e-way
bill is not generated by registered person and the goods are handed over to the
transporter for transportation by road, the registered person shall furnish the
information relating to the transporter in Part B of FORM GST
EWB-01 on the common portal and the e-way bill shall be generated by the
transporter on the said portal on the basis of the information furnished by the
registered person in Part A of FORM GST EWB-01.
A registered person may obtain an Invoice Reference Number from the
common portal by uploading, on the said portal, a tax invoice issued by him in FORM
GST INV-1 and produce the same for verification by the proper officer in lieu of
the tax invoice and such number shall be valid for a period of thirty days from
the date of uploading.
In the above case, the registered person will not have to upload the
information in Part A of
FORM GST EWB-01 for generation of e-way
bill and the same shall be autopopulated by the common portal on the basis of
the information furnished in FORM GST INV-1.
Upon generation of the e-way bill on the common portal, a unique e-way
bill number (EBN) generated by the common portal, shall be made available to
the supplier, the recipient and the transporter on the common portal.
The details of e-way bill generated shall be made available to the recipient,
if registered, on the common portal, who shall communicate his acceptance or
rejection of the consignment covered by the e-way bill. In case, the recipient
does not communicate his acceptance or rejection within seventytwo hours of
the details being made available to him on the common portal, it shall be
deemed that he has accepted the said details.
Purpose of E-Way Bill
E-way bill is a mechanism to ensure that goods being transported comply
with the GST Law and is an effective tool to track movement of goods and check
tax evasion.
Validity of E-Way Bill
The validity of e-way bill depends on the distance to be travelled by the
goods. For a distance of less than 100 Km the e-way bill will be valid for a
day from the relevant date. For every 100 Km thereafter, the validity will be
additional one day from the relevant date. The "relevant date" shall
mean the date on which thee-way bill has been generated and the period of
validity shall be counted from the time at which the e-way bill has been generated
and each day shall be counted as twenty-four hours. In general, the validity of
thee-way bill cannot be extended. However, Commissioner may extend the validity
period only by way of issue of notification for certain categories of goods
which shall be specified later.
Further, if under circumstances of an exceptional nature, the goods
cannot be transported within the validity period of the e-way bill, the
transporter may generate another e-way bill after updating the details in Part
B of FORM GST EWB-01.
Cancellation of E-Way Bill
Where an e-way bill has been generated under this rule, but goods are
either not transported or are not transported as per the details furnished in
the e-way bill, the e-way bill may be cancelled electronically on the common
portal, either directly or through a Facilitation Centre notified by the
Commissioner, within 24 hours of generation of the e-way bill.
However, an
e-way bill cannot be cancelled if it has been verified in transit in accordance
with the provisions of rule 138B of the CGST Rules, 2017 .
The facility of generation and cancellation of e-way bill will also be
made available through SMS.
Finer Points
An e-way bill has to be prepared for every consignment where the
value of the consignment exceeds Rs.50,000/-. Where multiple consignments of
varying values (per consignment) are carried in a single vehicle, e-way bill
needs to be mandatorily generated only for those consignments whose value
exceeds Rs.50,000/-. This does not however preclude the
consignor/consignee/transporter to generate e-way bills even for individual
consignments whose value is less than Rs.50000/- per consignment. For multiple
consignments being carried in the same vehicle, the transporter to prepare a
consolidated e-way bill by indicating serial number of each e-way bill, on the
common prior to commencement of transport of goods.
There is always a possibility that multiple vehicles are used for
carrying the same consignment to its destination or unforeseen exigencies may
require the consignments to be carried in a different conveyance than the
original one. For such situations, the rules provide that any transporter
transferring goods from one conveyance to another in the course of transit
shall, before such transfer and further movement of goods, update the details
of the conveyance in the e-way bill on the common portal in FORM
GST EWB-01.
The person in charge of a conveyance has to carry the invoice or bill of
supply or delivery challan, as the case may be; and a copy of the e-way bill or
the e-way bill number, either physically or mapped to a Radio Frequency
Identification Device embedded on to the conveyance in such manner as may be
notified by the Commissioner. However, where circumstances so warrant, the
Commissioner may, by notification, require the person-in-charge of the
conveyance to carry the following documents instead of thee-way bill:
(a) Tax invoice or bill of supply or bill of entry; or
(b) A delivery challan, where the goods are transported for reasons other
than byway of supply.
It is also be noted that the Commissioner may, by notification, require a
class of transporters to obtain a unique Radio Frequency Identification Device
and
get the said device embedded on to the conveyance and map the e-way bill to the
Radio Frequency Identification Device prior to the movement of goods.
E-Way bill to be issued whether for supply
or otherwise E-way bill is to be issued irrespective of whether the movement of goods
is caused by reasons of supply or otherwise.
In respect of than supply, movement could be in view of export/import,
job-work, SKD or CKD, recipient not known, line sales, sales returns,
exhibition or fairs, for own use, sale on approval basis etc.
Exceptions to e-way bill requirement
No e-way bill is required to be generated in the following cases
Transport of goods as specified in Annexure to Rule 138 of the CGST
Rules, 2017 goods being transported by a non-motorised conveyance;
goods being transported from the port, airport, air cargo complex and
land customs station to an inland container depot or a container freight
station for clearance by Customs;
in respect of movement of goods within such areas as are notified under
rule 138( 14) ( d) of the SGST Rules, 2017 of the concerned State; and
Consignment value less than Rs. 50,000/-
Consequences of non-conformance to E-way
bill rules
If e-way
bills, wherever required, are not issued in accordance with the provisions
contained in Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017, the same will be considered as
contravention of rules. As per Section 122 of the CGST Act, 2017, a taxable
person who transports any taxable goods without the cover of specified
documents ( e-way bill is one of the specified documents) shall be liable to a
penalty of Rs.10,000/- or tax sought to be evaded (wherever applicable)
whichever is greater. As per Section 129 of CGST Act, 2017, where any person
transports any goods or stores any goods while they are in transit in
contravention of the provisions of this Act or the rules made there under, all
such goods and conveyance used as a means of transport for carrying the said
goods and documents relating to such goods and conveyance shall be liable to
detention or seizure.
Enforcement
The
Commissioner or an officer empowered by him in this behalf may authorise the
proper officer to intercept any conveyance to verify the e-way bill or the
e-way bill number in physical form for all inter-State and intra-State movement
of goods.
The physical
verification of conveyances may also be carried out by the proper officer as
authorised by the Commissioner or an officer empowered by him in this behalf.
Physical verification of a specific conveyance can also be carried out by any
officer, on receipt of specific information on evasion of tax, after obtaining
necessary approval of the Commissioner or an officer authorised by him in this
behalf.
A summary
report of every inspection of goods in transit shall be recorded online by the
proper officer in Part A of FORM GST EWB-03 within twenty-four hours of inspection and
the final report in Part B of FORM GST EWB-03 shall be recorded within three days of such
inspection.
Once
physical verification of goods being transported on any conveyance has been done
during transit at one place within the State or in any other State, no further
physical verification of the said conveyance shall be carried out again in the
State, unless a specific information relating to evasion of tax is made
available subsequently.
Where a
vehicle has been intercepted and detained for a period exceeding thirty
minutes, the transporter may upload the said information in FORM
GST EWB-04 on the
common portal.
Conclusion
Thee-way
bill provisions aim to remove the ills of the erstwhile way bill system
prevailing under VAT in different states, which was a major contributor to the
bottlenecks at the check posts. Moreover different states prescribed different
e-way bill rules which made compliance difficult. The e-way bill provisions under
GST will bring in a uniform e-way bill rule which will be applicable throughout
the country. The physical interface will pave way for digital interface which
will facilitate faster movement of goods. It is bound to improve the turnaround
time of vehicles and help the logistics industry by increasing the average
distances travelled, reducing the travel time as well as costs.
Source:- CBEC
Source:- CBEC
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