Ludhiana: Four days after the amendment to the e-way bill system came into effect from January 1, city businessmen have given it a thumbs down. Transporters too are of the view that the new change under which now one day has been given to cover a distance of 200km instead of the earlier provision when for every 100km, one day was allowed. According to businessmen, the government should revoke this decision at the earliest before it’s too late.
Giving more information, Dinesh Kalra, president of Ludhiana Business Forums, said, “From January 1, 2021, the validity of the e-way bill has been changed. Earlier, the e-way bill used to valid for one day for every 100km travel, but now it will be valid for 200km travel in one day. It clearly means that the distance to be covered under the new provisions has been doubled. But this is not viable at all for the industry as it means that the means through which the goods have to be transported now is required to cover double the distance per day as compared to earlier times. Already, confusion has started prevailing as some of the transporters have put long distance consignments for a few destinations on hold as they are still trying to calculate whether it is possible to transport these under the time allowed as per the new guidelines. I think it will be better if the decision to change the validity could be deferred.”
According to Charan Singh Lohara, chairman of All India Motor Transport Congress, “The Centre is bringing one rule after the other, which is hitting the transport industry adversely. Operating transport business has become a Herculean task, particularly in the wake of fuel hike and insurance charges and huge losses due to coronavirus and now the sudden change in the e-way bill rule. Just when the transporters and businessmen started adapting a bit with the complex e-way bill system, the government has doubled the kilometre limit, but did not increase the duration. Confusion has started prevailing in the market already, especially for the consignments for far-off states as transporters will have to carefully calculate the number of days of validity of e-way bill when the validity of e-way bill has been halved. We demand immediate revocation of the new amendment as it will lead to huge problems for us.”