The Sushil Modi-headed Group of Ministers on GST has decided to go for a phased launch of e-way Bill system and recommended that it be made mandatory for inter-State movement of goods from April 1. This recommendation will be taken up by the GST Council at its meeting on March 10, Modi, who is also Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, said after the GoM meeting in the Capital on Saturday.
Modi also said the issue of making e-way Bill mandatory for intra-State movements will be considered after a couple of weeks post the April 1 implementation.
The introduction of e-way bill for intra-State will be staggered with only 4-5 States doing it at the first stage. “All the States will not introduce e-way Bill system for intra-State movement at one go. It will be done in a phased manner”.
On Saturday, the GoM reviewed the state of IT infrastructure preparedness for e-way bill implementation in the country. It was submitted to the GoM that the e-way bill portal has now been upgraded to handle as many as 26-50 lakh e-way bills a day in general. It can even go up to 75 lakhs per day, Modi said.
Load testing has been done twice and third round will be done in the next few days, he said.
It may be recalled that the Government had deferred implementation of e-way bill system under GST after industry faced several glitches on the IT portal front.
Currently, there are 9.5 lakh taxpayers who are registered under the e-way bill portal. There are 8,500 transporters registered with the e-way bill portal. In the prior period, there are 6.5 lakh e-way bills that were generated every day.
Simplifying returns
On the issue of simplifying returns, Modi said the GoM deliberated on the issue, but no final decision was arrived at. The issue requires more deliberation, Modi added. Nandan Nilekani, who is one of the key members of the Return Simlification Committee, made a presentation to the GoM.
Modi also clarified that there was no change in the threshold value of ₹50,000 per transaction for which e-way bill will be mandatory. Transporters carrying multiple consignments each with value above ₹50,000 will have to carry multiple e-way Bills.
MS Mani, Partner-GST, Deloitte in India, told BusinessLine that the recommendation of a phased launch of the e-way Bill will enable businesses to become ready over a period of time and will give time to GSTN to overcome glitches that arise during the initial phase.
On the issue of returns simplification, Mani said the fact that the GoM requires more deliberations on the issue of simplifying returns indicates that there is an attempt to retain fundamental features such as invoice matching and input tax credit tracking, while making the return process easier for taxpayers.
Pratik Jain, Partner & Leader - Indirect Taxes, PwC India, said: “Introducing E-way bill only for inter-State transactions from April 1, 2018 is a good idea as it will give it time for the government as well as industry to adjust with the new system and ensure that load on the portal is not sudden”.
He said that the GST council should ensure that all the States introduce this mechanism from the same date and the current practice wherein different system is followed in different States is discontinued.