Eway bill system set for allIndia rollout by Feb
NEWDELHI: Ten Indian states are likely to have the e-way bill system under the goods and services tax in place by the new year in preparation for an all-India rollout by February despite concerns expressed by industry about potential harassment by tax officials.
Industry executives are concerned that the e-way bill system, an electronic way of tracking the movement of goods, may give taxmen in the states powers to harass businesses in case of small instances of non-compliance even though it was designed to eliminate state-wise documentation and ensure faster transit of goods by doing away with checkposts on state borders.
The central and state tax authorities decided to move ahead with the measure, suspecting massive tax evasion under the new indirect tax regime that was implemented from July 1.
An e-way bill will have to generated for all movement of goods—within or outside a state—amounting to more than ₹50,000 by prior online registration of the consignment. The supplier and the transporter can upload the details about the shipment and get an e-way bill number.
Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand have all started the e-way bill system. While Karnataka was the first to move to an e-way bill system in September this year, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand started the system last week. Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Puducherry and Meghalaya are likely to start the system over the next few days.
At present, Karnataka, which led the implementation, sees an average of 100,000 e-way bills generated every day and inspects only around two in 1,000 shipments. Rejection rates are even less than 10% of the total inspections.
“Most states will start the e-way bill system at least on a pilot basis from January 15. An e-way bill will remove the necessity to have a transit pass. At present, one needs multiple transit passes if the goods are moving through many states,” said Prakash Kumar, CEO of GST Network, which manages the new indirect tax regime’s information technology systems.