GST E-way bill

This article is to provide some details on the e-way bill which is said to be applicable from 1/04/2018 on inter-state supply of goods.

The main purpose of e-way bill is to validate the movement of the goods, as soon as there is any movement in the goods, e-way bill is required to be generated and it can be generated by either of the parties i.e. the consignor(supplier), consignee(receiver) or the transporter.

E way bill shall be valid for one day for first 100 km. and then additional one day for every additional 100 km. or part thereof. The period of one day shall be calculated from the midnight of the day in which the e- way bill is generated. However in case of over-sized cargo, this distance of 100 km. shall be reduced to 20 km. E-way bill has to be accepted or rejected within 72 hours and in case nothing has been done till the end of 72 hours, then it shall be deemed to be accepted.

E-way bill shall not be required under following circumstances:

1. When the goods are being sent from the place of business of the consignor to the place of transporter for further transportation.

2. When the goods are sent from the office of the transporter to the place of business of the consignee.

3. When the value of the consignment does not exceed Rs. 50,000(incl. of GST).

E-way bill consists of two parts, PART A and PART B

PART A consists the details about the goods and the recipient details have to be fed in it, after all the details are filled in it and we click on the submit button then also the e-way bill is not generated, rather it produced a Unique number(significance of which will be discussed later). The transporter after he gets his transport ready and fills the PART B in EWB, after that the E-way bill is generated, so if the goods are kept with the transporter for 10 days, then there is nothing to worry, as the journey starts, once the PART B is filled and the e-way bill is generated.

PART B consists of the details about the transport and the vehicle details in which the goods are to be sent.

The significance of the unique number generate on the submission of Part A can be used by the transporter while the goods are transported upto 50 km., so that if anybody catches him, he with that unique number has the proof that someone has generated the PART A of the bill, and that the goods are not liable to confiscation.

E-way bill gives an option of OUTWARD & INWARD supplies, i.e. if a person is taking the delivery of the goods at location A and he sells the same at Location B, in that case he can generate e-way bill under inwards option with “Bill to and ship to” in the name of the same person, as a Branch transfer category.

However there is one more option available in it:

Suppose our goods are delivered at location A, and our office is in Location B, but we want to get the goods delivered to Location C, in that case we can generate the E-way bill with “Bill to-to us & ship to- to the customer”, thus avoiding the problem of first bringing the goods to our location and then sending it to the customer.

Thus in my opinion, it is a great reform which in initial phase  likely to get criticized, however as the time passes and everyone starts following the practice, it will ultimately be of benefit to everyone.