An e-way bill is a document which is required to be carried by a person in charge of the conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding fifty thousand rupees as mandated by the Government in terms of Section 68 of the Goods and Services Tax Act read with Rule 138 of the rules framed thereunder. It is generated from the GST Common Portal for e-way bill system by the registered persons or transporters who cause movement of goods of consignment before commencement of such movement. E-Way Bill is an Electronic Way bill for movement of goods to be generated on the e-way Bill Portal. 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. The e-way Bill System for Inter-State movement of goods across the country has been introduced from 01 April 2018. 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. The e-way bill is required to transport all the goods except exempted under the Notifications or rules. The e-Waybill is a replacement of the older “waybill”. It was prevalent in the older VAT regime.
The consignor or consignee, as a registered person or a transporter of the goods can generate the e-way bill. The unregistered transporter can enroll on the common portal and generate the e-way bill for movement of goods for his clients. Any person can also enroll and generate the e-way bill for movement of goods for his/her own use.
1. Invoice/ Bill of Supply/ Challan related to the consignment of goods.
2. Transport by road – Transporter ID or Vehicle number.
3. Transport by rail, air, or ship – Transporter ID, Transport document number, and date on the document.
E-Way Bill can be generated on the e-Way Bill Portal. It has two Components
1. Part A comprising of details of GSTIN 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
2. 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.
Where the goods are transported by a registered person - whether 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 for e-way bill system. 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 GST Common Portal for e-way bill system 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 auto-populated 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 seventy- two hours of the details being made available to him on the common portal, it shall be deemed that he has accepted the said details.
The e-way bill can be generated by the registered person in any of the following methods;-
• Using Web based system
• Using SMS based facility - The taxpayer has to register the mobile numbers through which he intends to generate the e-way bill on the e-way bill system.
• Using Android App - The mobile app is available only for the taxpayers and enrolled transporters. It is not available in Play Store. The main user has to login and select the ‘for mobile app’ under registration menu. The system asks to select the user/sub-user and enter the IMEI number of the user. Once it is entered, the concerned user gets the link in his registered mobile to download the app through SMS. Now, the user has to download the app by clicking that link and enable it to get installed on the mobile.
• Bulk generation facility - Through this facility, user can upload multiple invoices and generate multiple e-Way bill at one go. This facility can be used by the taxpayers or transporters who have automated their invoice generation system. In one go, they can prepare bulk requests for e-way bills in a file from their automated system, and upload it on the common portal and generate e-way bill in one go. This avoids duplicate data entry into e-way bill system and avoids data entry mistakes also. Any taxpayer or transporter can use the bulk generation facility.
• Using Site-to-Site integration - The integration between e-way bill system and registered persons’ system can be done through APIs. For availing this facility, the registered person should register the server details of his/her systems (through which he wants to generate the e-way bill using the APIs of e-way bill system) with e-way bill system.
• Using GSP (Goods and Services Tax Suvidha Provider) Validity of E-Way Bill Validity of the e-way bill depends upon the distance the goods have to be transported. In case of regular vehicle or transportation modes, for every 100 KMs or part of its movement, one day validity has been provided. And in case of Over Dimensional Cargo vehicles, for every 20 KMs or part of its movement, one day validity is provided. And this validity expires on the midnight of last day. In general, the validity of the e-way bill cannot be extended. However, Commissioner may extend the validity period only by way of issue of notification for certain categories of goods. 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.
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.
Exceptions to e-way bill requirement
E-way bill is not required to be generated in the following cases:
1. Goods being transported by a non-motorised conveyance;
2. 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;
3. Goods transported under Customs supervision or under customs seal
4. Goods transported under Customs Bond from ICD to Customs port or from one custom station to another.
5. Transit cargo transported to or from Nepal or Bhutan
6. Goods transported with the Ministry of Defence as consignor or consignee
7. Empty Cargo containers are being transported
8. Consignment value less than Rs. 50,000/-
9. Consignor transporting goods to or from between place of business and a weighbridge for weighment at a distance of 20 kms, accompanied by a Delivery challan.
10.Goods being transported by rail where the Consignor of goods is the Central Government, State Governments or a local authority.
11.Goods specified as exempt from E-Way bill requirements in the respective State/Union territory GST Rules.
Note: Part B of e-Way Bill is not required to be filled where the distance between the consigner or consignee and the transporter is less than 50 Kms and transport is within the same state.
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.
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