E-way bill to be launched in 6 more states from April 20

E-way bill for intra-state movement of goods would be rolled out for six states, including Bihar, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, from April 20.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi said so far the e-way bill roll out has been smooth with no major problem being reported from any part of the country. The electronic way bill for interstate movement of goods was launched on April 1, with Karnataka being the sole state to start intra-state eway bill on the same day. Eway bill for intra-state movement was started by five states — Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — on April 15. “Beginning April 20, intra-state e-way bill will be rolled out in 6 states — Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Uttarakhand,” Modi told reporters here.

The GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts, had last month decided on a staggered roll out of the e-way bill beginning with inter-state on April 1. Modi, who also heads the Group of Ministers on return simplification and reverse charge mechanism under GST, said since the roll out of intra-state e-way bill on April 15, there have been a 25 per cent increase in the number of e-way bills generation, reports PTI.

He said Gujarat was the major state in terms of intrastate e-way bill generation, followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra. Nine states have generated 82 per cent of the e-way bills so far. GST Network Chief Executive Prakash Kumar said since April 1, 1.22 crore e-way bills have been generated of the portal and 543 verification reports have been uploaded by the tax officials.

Besides, only 20 reports have been uploaded by taxpayers where the conveyance was held back for more than 30 minutes by tax officers. Touted as an anti-evasion measure and would help boost tax collections by clamping down on trade that currently happens on cash basis, the e-way bill provision of the goods and services tax (GST) was first introduced on February 1.