Summary of E-way bill provisions

E-Way Bill Provisions effective 1st February 2018 but been deferred till further announcement on 1st February 2018 itself due to technical issues. 

What is E-way Bill?  

• E-Way Bill is an electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on the e-Way Bill Portal (ewaybill.nic.in or ewaybillgst.gov.in).
• Transport of goods of invoice value (inclusive of CGST, SGST, IGST or Cess) of more than INR 50,000 cannot be made without an e-way bill.
• In case of inter-state movement of goods for job work or of handicraft items by an unregistered person, E-way bill is mandatorily required to be generated regardless of the invoice value.
• Every registered person (whether consignor or consignee), who causes movement of goods, needs to generate the e-way bill. If the registered person is unable to generate the e-way bill, the transporter who transports the goods can generate the e-way bill on behalf of his/her client. If the movement is caused by an unregistered person, he may at his option generate the e-way bill.
• The person in charge of a conveyance shall carry the tax invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan or bill of entry as the case may be; and a copy of the e-way bill or the e-way bill number generated from the common portal in RFID device.
• The e-way bill is not valid without the vehicle number updated on the common portal, if the mode of transport is by road. The Vehicle number can be updated either by the generator of the e-way bill or the transporter assigned in the e-way bill.
• Some of the consignments are transported by the transporter through trans-shipment before it is delivered to the recipient at the place of destination. Hence for each movement from one place to another, the generator or the transporter needs to update the vehicle number in Part B of E-way Bill. Vehicle details can be updated multiple times though within the validity period of E-way bill.

Generation of E-Way Bill

• E-Way Bill application form EWB-01 is divided into two parts i.e. Part-A and Part-B

Part-A : In Part-A all the details relating to invoice need to be filled in and temporary number generated. The Part-A includes details of supplier, purchaser, goods, tax and transporter. This will be useful, when you have prepared invoice relating to your business transaction, but don’t have the transportation details. You can enter invoice details and keep it ready for filling Part-B later. The filled information and number generated would be valid for 72 hours.

Part-B : Once the goods are ready for movement from the business premises, the user can enter the Part-B or vehicle details and generate the e-way bill for movement of goods. Hence, Part-B details convert the Part-A slip into an e-way bill.

• In detail of goods to be filled in Part-A, HSN code of two digits is required to be mentioned in respect of suppliers having turnover upto INR 5 Crores and of four digits in respect of suppliers having turnover more than INR 5 Crores.
• The validity period of the EWB is calculated based on the ‘approx. distance’ entered while generating the EWB. For every 100kms one day is a validity period for EWB as per rule and for part of 100 KM one more day is added. For ex. If approx. distance is 430KMs then validity period is 4+1 days.
• The validity of the e-way bill starts once Part-B is filed. That is, vehicle entry is made first time in case of road transportation or first transport document number entry in case of rail/air/ship transportation, whichever is the first entry. It may be noted that validity is not re-calculated for subsequent entries/ updation in Part-B.
• If the consigner or consignee is unregistered taxpayer and not having GSTIN, then user should enter ‘URP’ [Unregistered Person] in corresponding GSTIN column.
• The e-way bill once generated, cannot be edited or modified. Only Part-B can be updated to it. However, if e-way bill is generated with wrong information, it can be cancelled and generated freshly again. The cancellation is required to be done within twenty-four hours from the time of generation. However, if it has been verified by any proper officer, then it cannot be cancelled. Further, e-way bill can also be cancelled if either goods are not transported at all or are not transported as per the details furnished in the e-way bill.
• Any person can verify the authenticity or the correctness of e-way bill by entering EWB No, EWB Date, Generator ID and Doc No in the search option of EWB Portal (http://ewaybill.nic.in).
• If multiple invoices are issued by the supplier to recipient, that is, for movement of goods of more than one invoice of same consignor and consignee, multiple EWBs should be generated. That is, for each invoice, one EWB must be generated, irrespective of same 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 purpose, if they are going in one vehicle.
• TRANSIN or Transporter ID is 15 digit unique number generated by EWB system for unregistered transporter once he enrolls on the system. TRANSIN is 15 digit number on similar lines with GSTIN and it is based on state code, PAN and Check digit. This can be shared by transporter to his clients to enter this number while generating e-waybills.

E-way Bill and documentation in Bill to Ship to Model

• Intra-State Supplies: If the addresses involved in ‘Bill to’ and ‘Ship to’ in an invoice belongs to one legal name/taxpayer as per GSTIN within the state, then one e-way bill needs to be generated. That is, if the ‘Bill to’ is principal place of business and ‘Ship to’ is additional place of business of the GSTIN or vice versa in an invoice, then one e-way bill is sufficient for the movement of goods.
• Inter-State Supplies: If the addresses involved in ‘Bill to’ and ‘Ship to’ in an invoice belongs to different legal names/taxpayers, then two e-way bills are required to be generated. One e-way bill for first invoice and second e-way bill is from ‘Bill to’ party to ‘Ship to’ party based on the invoice of the ‘Bill to’ party. This is required to complete the cycle of transactions and taxes will change for inter-state transactions.

For example, X has issued invoice to Y as ‘Bill to’ with Z as ‘Ship to’. Legally, both Y and Z are different taxpayers. Now, X will generate one e-way bill and Y will issue invoice and generate one more e-way bill. As goods are moving from X to Z directly, the transporter will produce both the invoices and both the e-way bills to show the shortcut movement of goods.

Other Provisions

• In case of non-compliance of E-way bill provisions, penalty of INR 10,000 or an amount equivalent to tax evaded can be levied.
• Transportation of following goods have been exempted from compliance of E-way Bill provisions:

o Specified goods in Annexure to Rule 138(14) of CGST Rules e.g. vegetables, food items, used personal and household effects

o Where the goods are being transported by a non-motorised conveyance e.g. cycle rickshaws, push scooters, hand carts etc.

o Goods transported from port, airport, air cargo complex or land customs station to Inland Container depot or Container Freight Station for clearance by customs