E-way Bill starts its second innings; 1.7 lakh bills generated on first day

The Centre has successfully relaunched the e-Way Bill, or electronic way bill system, for interstate movement of goods from April 1, the Finance Ministry said. According to a press statement by the ministry, from now on, transporters will have to produce the e-Way bill to a GST inspector for interstate movement of goods worth Rs 50,000 or more.
An e-Way Bill is a tax pass issued by vendors and manufacturers, certifying that the goods transported are excise-paid.

In the first attempt, the e-way bill rollout on February 1 had failed due to technical glitches in the system, which affected the bill generation process. The plan was aborted and the system was updated and tested again for easy and glitch-free implementation.
 
The ministry claimed that 75 lakh e-way bills can now be generated daily, compared with the earlier capacity of 26 lakh. The system will be implemented for movement of goods within the states in a phased manner. At present, only Karnataka has implemented the intra-state e-way bill system for moving goods.
 
"A total of 1,71,503 e-way bills have been successfully generated on the portal from 12 midnight till 5 pm on April 1. Besides, 19,796 transporters, who were not registered under GST, have enrolled themselves on the e-Way Bill Portal," the ministry statement said.
 
A PTI report said that though there were no major roadblocks on Sunday, the real test will be on Monday when the trading will pick up in full pace after a long weekend. Traders said the e-way bill system may cause a disruption on Monday as the volume is expected to go up immensely. "The number of e-way bills generated on Sunday were much less when compared to weekdays," traders said.
 
Earlier, the finance ministry had said that an e-way bill will be considered valid from the day transporter fills in the details in the GST form for the first time.
 
How to generate an e-Way Bill
The e-Way Bill is being implemented nationwide by GSTN in association with the National Informatics Centre. Bills can be generated in many ways: Web (Online), Android App, SMS, using Bulk Upload Tool and API-based site to site integration. Consolidated bills can be generated for vehicle carrying multiple consignments.
For multiple sub-users, a provision has been created where transporters can create multiple sub-heads and allocate roles.
Steps to create e-Way Bills:

The bill under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has to be generated by logging into the official e-way bill portal - https://ewaybillgst.gov.in.

• Log in to the website using Goods and Services Tax Identification Number
• On the bill portal, click on registration
• The system will send a One Time Password (OTP) to the registered mobile number
• After the verification, the user has to create a username and password
• Once done, the user can make entries to generate e-way bill

 For unregistered transporters

• By logging on to the portal, one has to click on 'Enrolment for Transporters'
• Fill the details and submit the form
• A Transporter ID will be created, along with your user credentials
• This Transporter ID can be given to clients

For cancellation

• An e-way Bill can be cancelled within 24 hours by bill creator from the same id
• A recipient can also reject the e-way Bill within validity period or 72 hours of generation

The GST council has also arranged for an online helpdesk to answer queries of taxpayers and transporters with around 100 agents dedicated to answer your queries.
 
With PTI inputs