E-way bill rollout for intra-state movement of goods in five states from April 15

After the rollout of the e-way bill system for all inter-state movement of goods on April 1, the government on Tuesday said the electronic way bill system for the intra-state movement of goods in five states will be launched from April 15. In the first phase, the states that will have the e-way bill system for the intra-state movement of goods are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.  

The intra-state movement of goods under the e-way bill is already operational in Karnataka - the first state to do so - from April 1. According to a statement by the ministry of finance, more than 63 lakh e-way bills have been generated till April 9. "The e-way bill system for the intra-state movement of goods would be implemented from April 15, 2018, in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh," said the statement.

With the roll-out of e-Way Bill system in these states, it is expected that trade and industry will be further facilitated in terms of the transport of goods, thereby paving the way for a nation-wide single e-way bill system, the ministry said. Trade people and transporters in these states can now get registration done on e-way bill portal - ewaybillgst.gov.in.

On March 10, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the e-way bill would be implemented for inter-state transportation of goods from April 1 but there would be phased rollout of e-way bill for intra-state movement of goods from April 15. All the states have been divided into four groups.

Wary of system collapsing like it happened when the e-way bill was first introduced on February 1, the Council had decided to rollout the requirement of carrying the permit for intra-state movement in a staggered manner.

The government in its last GST meeting had said all the states would have the system in place by June 1.

According to the government, a total of 11,18,292 taxpayers have registered on e-way bill portal. Further, as many as 20,057 transporters have enrolled themselves on the e-way bill portal. Though the number would go up substantially when e-way bills for intra-state transportation of goods is also required.

The successful implementation of e-way bill is very crucial as both the states and the centre consider it as an important anti-evasion provision to check tax leakages.

The government, which is already facing continuous drop in monthly GST collections, hopes to see improvement on this front after the e-way bill is implemented.

Also read: Maharashtra government raises concern over low e-way bill generation