R S Parekh & Co

Understanding E-way Bill.

Hello Dear Friends and Professional Colleagues.

It’s been talk of the town for a while and now it will be live in all rest of the states w.e.f. 1st February, 2018, whereas it was adopted by few states as mandatory (namely- Uttarakhand, Kerala, Karnataka and Rajasthan) for inter-state movement of goods exceeding Rs. 50,000/- in value, 13 States have agreed for implementation of Intra- State supplies also.
The E way bill has to be generated online through the website ewaybill.nic.in after following a simple one -time registration procedure. The details required for generating E-way Bill are very basics like Vehicle No., distance and item carrying along with the recipient details and are required to be generated by a registered person supplying goods or receiving goods from an unregistered person. Following this you would require details which shall be available from the Invoice Copy and hence I am not elaborating on the same.
Though a small but integral part of GST, there would be few practical issues which I could possibly think of is listed below in few FAQs.
1. Whether e-way bill is required for all the goods that are being transported?
Yes, for all taxable goods with value exceeding Rs. 50,000/- except for 154 goods specified in the Annexure to the Notification.

2. Can the E-way bill be deleted or cancelled?
The e-way bill once generated cannot be deleted. However, it can be cancelled by the generator within 24 hours of generation. If it has been verified by any empowered officer, then it cannot be cancelled. E-way bill can be cancelled, if either goods are not transported or are not transported as per the details furnished in the e-way bill.

3. If the goods having e-way bill has to pass through transhipment and through different vehicles, how it has to be handled?
Some of the consignments are transported by the transporter through transhipment before it is delivered to the recipient at the place of destination. Hence for each movement from one place to another, the transporter needs to update the vehicle number in which he is transporting that consignment.

4. Is there any validity period for e-way bill?
Yes. Validity of the e-way bill or consolidated e-way bill depends upon the distance the goods have to be transported. The validity is one day upto 100 km and for every 100 km or part thereafter it is one additional day.

5. What are the modes of e-way bill generation, the taxpayer can use?
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
Using Android App
Using Site-to-Site integration
Using GSP ( Goods and Services Tax Suvidha Provider)

These are few FAQs which I can immediately think of and provide a valid answer.

Definitely once on practical implementation, there will be various bottlenecks to accomplish a simple task like this.

My article rests here for general public and starts for the professional colleagues from here onwards.

Now the process seems to be full proof, let us try to understand its operation with hep of some relative examples:

1. Your transporter is situated more than 10 kms from your premises(POB) and you need to transport to his place first and then he shall connect your shipment further to the final destination?
Let us try to understand this, You hire a small time transporter who is not registered under GST and has Transporter ID, (who also needs to register himself on the e way bill portal). Who shall take your goods to the main transporter who is more than 10 kms away from your place of business. As per the wording we do not require an E way Bill at this stage, As my example is still Intra-State (excluding the 13 states who have included EWB for Intra State supplies also.)
Transporter A who is small transporter connects your shipment to large Transporter B who shall take it to final destination. Before anything sets in motion, an E-way bill is required. So, for which transporter will you generate the E-Way bill? Transporter A who is small time or transporter B who is the main transporter?

As per the rules of EWB, it can be updated by the Consignor or the Transporter assigned, in our case Transporter A or the Consignor can only make changes to the EWB w.r.t. Vehicle no. etc. details required in Part-B and Transporter A cannot re-assign to Transporter-B, hence for each movement Transporter A has to update or Consigner himself has to update the EWB.

2. How to handle goods which move through multiple transhipment places?
Some of the consignments move from one place to another place till they reach their destinations. Under this circumstance, each time the consignment moves from one place to another, the transporter needs to enter the vehicle details using ‘Update Vehicle Number’ option, when he starts moving the goods from that place or the transporter can also generate ‘Consolidated EWB’ with the EWB of that consignment with other EWBs and move to the next place. This has to be done till the consignment reaches destination. But it should be within the validity period of EWB.

3. The Taxpayer has an option for Users Creation? What is it and how to use it?
Most of the times, the taxpayer or authorized person himself cannot operate and generate EWBs. He will be dependent upon his staff or operator to do that. He would not like to avoid sharing his user credentials to them. In some firms, the business activities will be operational 24/7 and some firms will have multiple branches. Under these circumstances, the main user can create sub-users and assign the roles to them. He can assign generation of EWB or rejection or report generation activities based on requirements.
This facility helps him to monitor the activities done by sub-users. However, the main user should ensure that whenever employee is transferred or resigned, the sub-user account is frozen / blocked to avoid mis-utilisation.

4. How can we simplify EWB and make an error free EWB every time?
Human are bound to make errors, no matter even if you hire a good consultant, to minimize your errors there is an option to create Client Master, Supplier Master, Transporter Master and product master which can minimize the error which would be traceable faster.

5. What if my vehicle is detained?
Where a vehicle has been intercepted and detained for a period exceeding thirty minutes, the transporter may upload the said information. when it is detained unnecessary. This will be used to watch the grievances on the detention.

The system is designed for seamless trade though out the country with aiming to eliminate bottlenecks as earlier existed, as each state had its own Way bill; as goods would unnecessarily be stuck at various border check post, leaving unwanted hardships and complicated compliances, with this system it aims to minimize or eliminate entirely such hardships and give better efficiency to transport system and industry by cutting down the time taken earlier to transport goods from one place to other and reducing its cost of transportation.