Finance Ministry introduces changes in e-way bill system to contain GST evasion

25 Apr 2019 Evaluate

The Finance Ministry has introduced several changes in the electronic way or e-way bill system, ranging from auto calculation of distance based on PIN codes for generation of e-way bill to barring businesses from generating multiple e-way bills based on one invoice, as it seeks to cracks down evasion in the goods and services tax (GST) framework. Touted as an anti-evasion tool, the e-way bill was rolled out on April 1, 2018, which is used by businesses to transport goods worth over Rs 50,000 both within and outside a state. The same for intra or within the state movement was rolled out in a phased manner from April 15.

With instances of malpractices in e-way bill generation getting detected, the revenue department has decided to rework the system for generation of e-way bill by transporters and business. The new enhanced system will be enabled to auto calculate the distance for movement of goods based on the postal PIN codes of source and destination locations. The user would be allowed to enter the actual distance as per the movement of goods, which will be limited to 10 percent more than the auto calculated distance displayed, according to the e-way bill portal.

Besides, the government has decided not to permit generation of multiple e-way bills based on one invoice. This means, if the e-way bill is generated once with a particular invoice number, then none of the parties -- consignor, consignee or transporter -- can generate another e-way bill with the same invoice number. The enhanced feature would permit extension of validity of the e-way bill when the goods are in transit/movement. Transporters of goods worth over Rs 50,000 would be required to present e-way bill during transit to a GST inspector, if asked. Failure to produce an e-way bill can attract a penalty of Rs 10,000 or amount of tax sought to be evaded, whichever is higher.

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