The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Wednesday said implementation of intra-State E-way bill in several States from April 15, will prove to be a roadblock in smooth transportation of goods in such States and as such the CAIT has called upon the 'Goods and Services Tax' (GST) Council to restrict to inter-state E Way bill for the present.
CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said GST in itself is at a very initial stage and still needs to be settled and under such conditions if E way Bill for intra-State transactions is used, it will prove much detrimental for the trade and transportation of goods within a State. He further said there is much less of education about E way bill among traders across the country particularly in smaller towns and as such complying with the E way bill conditions would be an onerous task.
Khandelwal also said intra State trade is highly diversified and transportation of goods remains both in retail and wholesale nature. “Further, largely the goods are kept in godowns and warehouses and usually such goods are transported either directly to the transport or at the showroom of the traders. Generation of E way bill for such transactions will add to many complexities and will be hurdle in smooth business activities,” he said.
Also, he suggested that the GST Council may draw some other automatic mechanism to validate the legality of the transported goods instead of E Way bill. "A Quick Response Code (QR Code) could be developed and be given to each trader registered with the department to imprint on his Invoice and the goods can be checked at any given point of time without giving any extra botheration to traders," he added.