Quick review of Gst council recommendation on e-way bill

E-way bill is an electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on GSTN portal. E-way bill contains the details of transported goods besides the name of consignor and consignee of such goods.

It is the evidence of realness of supply of goods from one place to another.

This is required to be generated for consignment of goods of value exceeding Rs 50000. (Generating an e-way bill for consignments valuing less than Rs 50000 is optional)

When should an E-Way Bill be generated?

E-way bill is required to be generated for any movement of goods, due to any of following reasons:

In relation to supply

For reasons other than supply

For inward supply from an unregistered persons

Validity of E-Way Bill

Distance	Valid for
Upto 100 km	1 day
100 km or more but less than 300 km	3 day
300 km or more but less than 500 km	5 day
500 km or more but less than 1000 km	10 day
More than 1000 km	15 day

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 motorless conveyance;

Product 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;

Consignment value less than Rs. 50,000/

Goods worth more than Rs.50, 000 are transported from one place to another an e-way bill is required.

In case goods are transported without an e-way bill, the goods can be seized by a GST officer and penalty could be levied.

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Documents Required for Transport under GST

In addition to the GST E-Way Bill, a person-in-charge of conveyance of goods is required to carry the following documents for inspection by authorities at any time:

Invoice or bill of supply or delivery challans and invoice reference number from the GST common portal, obtained by uploading a copy of the GST tax invoice issued in FORM GST INV-1.

Copy of the e-way bill or the e-way bill number, either physically or mapped to a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) embedded onto the vehicle. in such manner as may be notified.

Major improvements over the last set of rules, as approved by the Council now, are as follows:

• E-way bill is required to be generated only where the value of the consignment exceeds Rs. 50000/-. For smaller value consignments, no e-way bill is required.
• The provisions of sub-rule (7) of Rule 138 will be notified from a later date.
• Therefore, at present there is no requirement to generate e-way bill where an individual consignment value is less than Rs. 50,000/-, even if the transporter is carrying goods of more than Rs. 50,000/- in a single conveyance.
• Value of exempted goods has been excluded from value of the consignment, for the purpose of e-way bill generation.
• Public conveyance has also been included as a mode of transport and the responsibility of generating e-way bill in case of movement of goods by public transport would be that of the consignor or consignee.
• Railways have been exempted from generation and carrying of e-way bill with the condition that without the production of the e-way bill, railways will not deliver the goods to the recipient.
• But railways are required to carry invoices or delivery challan etc.
• The time period for the recipient to communicate his acceptance or rejection of the consignment would be the validity period of the concerned e-way bill or 72 hours, whichever is earlier.
• In case of movement of goods on account of job-work, the registered job worker can also generate an e-way bill.
• The consignor can authorize the transporter, courier agency, and e-commerce operator to fill PART-A of e-way bill on his behalf.
• Movement of goods from the place of consignor to the place of transporter up to a distance of 50 Km [increased from 10 km] does not require filling of PART-B of e-way bill. They have to generate PART-A of the e-way bill.
• An extra validity period has been provided for Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC).
• If the goods cannot be transported within the validity period of the e-way bill, the transporter may extend the validity period in case of transshipment or in case of circumstances of an exceptional nature.
• Validity of one day will expire at midnight of the day immediately following the date of generation of e-way bill.
• Once verified by any tax officer, the same conveyance will not be subject to the second check in any State or Union territory, unless and until specific information for the same is received.
• In the case of the movement of goods by railways, airways, and waterways, the e-way bill can be generated even after the commencement of the movement of goods.
• Movement of goods on account of Bill-To-Ship-To supply will be handled through the capturing of place of dispatch in PART-A of e-way bill.