E-Way Bill under Goods & Service Tax - All You Need to Know.

E-Way Bill under Goods & Service Tax - All You Need to Know.

E-Way Bill under GST

An E-way bill is a document 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. A GST registered person cannot transport goods in a vehicle whose value exceeds Rs. 50,000 (Single Invoice/bill/delivery challan) without an e-way bill. It is generated from the GST Common Portal for the e-Way bill system by the registered persons or transporters who cause the movement of consignment goods before the commencement of such movement. Alternatively, Eway bills can also be generated or cancelled through SMS, Android App and site-to-site integration through API.



When an eway bill is generated, a unique Eway Bill Number (EBN) is allocated and is available to the supplier, recipient, and transporter. It has two Components.
  1. Part A comprising of details of GSTIN of the recipient, place of delivery (PIN Code), invoice or challan number and date, the 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 comprises 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 the information mentioned above in part A of the e-way bill. Part B containing transport details, helps in the generation of e-way accounts.




When is an E-Way bill generated?

An e-way bill must be generated before the goods are shipped, and it should include details of the goods, their consignor, recipient and transporter. An e-way invoice is generated for:
  1. Supply of goods 
  2. Non-supply transactions like export/import, return of goods, job work, line sales, sale on approval basis, semi or completely knocked down supply, supply of goods for exhibition or fair, and goods used for personal consumption.

Who all can generate the E-Way bill

The consignor or consignee, as a registered person or a transporter of the goods, can generate the e-way bill. The unregistered transporter can enrol on the common portal and generate the e-way invoice to move goods for his clients. Any person can also register and generate the e-way bill for the movement of goods for their use.         
                                                                   
  1. Registered Person – E-way bill must be generated when there is a movement of goods of more than Rs 50,000 in value to or from a registered person. A Registered person or the transporter may choose to generate and carry eway bill even if the value of goods is less than Rs 50,000.
  1. Unregistered Persons – Unregistered persons are also required to generate an e-Way Bill. However, where an unregistered person supplies a registered person, the receiver will have to ensure all the compliances are met as if they were the supplier.
  1. Transporter – Transporters carrying goods by road, air, rail, etc., also need to generate an e-Way Bill if the supplier has not developed an e-Way Bill.

Documents required to generate E-Way bill

Below mentioned documents are required for generating E waybill
  1. Tax invoice, Bill of Supply, Delivery challan
  2. Transporter ID and vehicle number
  3. Transport document number (When transport is done by rail or ship or air)

Registration Process by the taxpayers on the E-Way Bill System

The registration mechanism for the GST taxpayers under the e-Way Bill system is a straightforward process. It needs to be done only onceLet'st's understand the step-by-step process-

Step 1: First, visit on E-way Bill Portal in your browser.

Step 2: On the e-Way Bill portal, first-time GSTIN can be registered by clicking on the 'e-way bill Registrat'on' link und "r "Registrat" on" option.



Step 3: The user needs to enter their GSTIN number and the displayed captcha and click 'Go' to submit the request.



Step 4: Then, the user will be redirected to the 'e-Way Bill Registration F'rm'. The registration form is shown below, and which will have these auto-populated details – Applicant name, Trade name, Address, Mail ID and Mobile Number.

If the details have been changed or incorrect, click the 'n 'Update from GST CommPortal'al' button to pull the latest data from the GST Common Portal. Else, click 'n 'Send 'TP' to get the OTP. Once OTP is received on the registered mobile number, enter the OTP and click 'n 'verify 'TP' to validate the same.



Step 5: Next, enter your choice of User ID or username, which you plan to use to operate the account on this system. A Unique user name should be given, and it should be about 8 to 15 alphanumeric characters and include special characters as well.

Once a request for the registration is submitted, the system validates the entered values. Pops up with the appropriate message for any error will be shown. Else, the username with password is created and registered with the e-Way Bill System.

You can now use this registered username and password to work on the system.


Which types of transactions need the E-Way bill.

For transportation of goods about all types of transactions such as outward supply within the State or interstate, inward supply whether from within the State or from interstate including from unregistered persons or for reasons other than supply also e-way bill is mandatory. Please refer to relevant notifications/rules for details. However, from 1st April 2018, e-way is required only for interstate movement. 



Exceptions to E-Way bill requirement

No e-way bill is required to be generated in the following cases.
  1. Transport of goods as specified in Annexure to Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017
  2. goods being transported by a non-motorised conveyance;
  3. 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;
  4. 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
  5. Consignment value less than Rs. 50,000/-

Benefits of E-Way bill

The e way bill mechanism has numerous benefits. It will –
  1. Facilitate faster movement of goods.
  2. Improve the turnaround time of trucks since the check-post have been abolished. Thus, it will benefit the logistics industry by reducing the travel time and cost and increasing the distance travelled.
  3. User-friendly e way bill generating system. This means there is no need to visit the waybill department for the generation of e way account as this was a significant hardship in the existing system. The e-way bill can be directly generated online.
  4. The entire system is online, thus avoiding tax evasion.

Validity of E-Way Bill

The validity of the e-way bill depends on the distance to be travelled by the goods.
  1. Less than 100 KM: 1 Day
  2. Every 100 Km or part thereof after that – 1 additional day

The validity period will be counted from the time of generation of the E-Way Bill. The validity period of the E-Way Bill may be extended by the Commissioner for specific categories of goods, as specified in the notification issued in this regard.


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 invoice 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 statement cannot be cancelled if it has been verified in transit in accordance with the provisions of rule 138B of the CGST Rules, 2017.


Penalties associated with the E-Way bill

If a consignment is found without an e-way bill, the concerned person should pay a penalty of Rs. 10,000 or the equivalent amount of tax evaded (the greater of the two).





For more information on this, visit https://www.taxaj.com/.


Frequently Asked Questions


1. Why is the e-way bill required?
Section 68 of the Act mandates that the Government may require the person in charge of a conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding such amount as may be specified to carry with him such documents and such devices as may be prescribed. Rule 138 of CGST Rules, 2017 defines e-way bill as the document to be accepted for the consignment of goods in certain specified cases., and hence-waybill generated from the common portal is required.


2. Whether an e-way bill is required for all the goods that are being transported?
The e-way bill is required to transport all the goods except exempted under the notifications or rules. The movement of handicraft goods or goods for job-work purposes under specified circumstances also requires an e-way bill even if the consignment value is less than fifty thousand rupees. Kindly refer to the e-way bill rules for other exemptions.


3. What is Bar Code in the generated E way bill?
This is one of the most helpful features for all GST e-way bill users. The feature helps transporter and department officers to scan and verify the authenticity of the GST e waybill. 

It contains the following details -

The e waybill number, User GSTN number mentioned on the bill, Date and time of the creation of the e waybill. This can be used to match the details printed to verify that there is no manipulation or modification in the printed copy.


4. Is an e-Way bill required if the value of shipment per customer per day exceeds Rs 50,000? How will we take multiple invoices under a single e-way bill?
Here, it depends whether the supplier himself is the transporter or not. If he is the transporter, he is required to generate the e-way bill for all the invoices, but if not, the transporter will be required to create the e-way bill against all the invoices in the vehicle.


5. What are the documents that need to be carried along with the goods being transported?
The person in charge of a conveyance shall carry the invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, bill of entry as the case may be and a copy of the e-way bill number generated from the e-way bill portal.


6. Can the e-way bill be modified or edited?
The e-way bill, once generatcan'tn'tgeneratcan'tn't be edited or modified. Only Part-B can be updated. However, if an e-way bill is generated with wrong information, it can be cancelled and generated afresh. The cancellation is required to be done within twenty-four hours from the time of generation.


7. How to generate an e-way bill for multiple invoices belonging to the same consignor and consignee?
Suppose the supplier issues multiple invoices to the recipient, that is, for movement of goods of more than one invoice of the same consignor and consignee. In that case, multiple EWBs have to be generated. For each invoice, one EWB has to be generated, irrespective of whether identical or different consignors or consignees are involved. Multiple invoices cannot be clubbed to generate one EWB. However, after generating all these EWBs, one Consolidated EWB can be prepared for transportation if goods are going in one vehicle.


8. Can I extend the validity of the e-way bill?
Yes, you can extend the validity of the e-way bill if the consignment is not being reached the destination within the validity period due to exceptional circumstances like natural calamity, law and order issues, trans-shipment delay, accident of conveyance, etc. The transporter needs to explain this reason in detail while extending the validity period.


9. What is to be done(in an EWB) if the vehicle breaks down?
If the vehicle breaks down when the goods are carried within EWB, the transporter can repair the vehicle and continue the same EWB. If he has to change the vehicle, he must enter the new vehicle details in that EWB on the eway bill portal, using the 'Update vehicle number option in Part B and continue the journey in the latest vehicle within the original validity period of the e-way bill.


10. Whether the e-way bill can be cancelled? If yes, under what circumstances?
Yes, the e-way bill can be cancelled if either good is not transported or are not transported as per the details furnished in the e-way bill. The e-way invoice can be cancelled within 24 hours from the time of generation.



                                                                                                        Ramesh Kumar Gupta (Team Taxaj)

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