What is GST E-way bill? Requirement, eligibility, documents required, who should prepare it, cancellation

 

GST E-way Bill

e-way bill is a document required to be carried by a person in charge of the conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding fifty thousand rupees as mandated by the Government in terms of Section 68 of the Goods and Services Tax Act read with Rule 138 of the rules framed thereunder. It is generated from the GST Common Portal for eWay bill system by the registered persons or transporters who cause movement of goods of consignment before commencement of such movement.

 

 

 

Legal Requirement of e-way bill

Section 68 of the Act mandates that the Government may require the person in charge of a conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding such amount as may be specified to carry with him such documents and such devices as may be prescribed. Rule 138 of CGST Rules, 2017 prescribes e-way bill as the document to be carried for the consignment of goods in certain prescribed cases. Hence e-way bill generated from the common portal is required.

 

Who is eligible to generate e-way bill

The consignor or consignee, as a registered person or a transporter of the goods can generate the e-way bill. The unregistered transporter can enroll on the common portal and generate the e-way bill for movement of goods for his clients. Any person can also enroll and generate the e-way bill for movement of goods for his/her own use.

 

Pre requirement of generating e-way bill

The pre-requisite for generation of eway bill is that the person who generates eway bill should be a registered person on GST portal and he should register in the eway bill portal. If the transporter is not registered person under GST it is mandatory for him to get enrolled on e-waybill portal (https://ewaybillgst.gov.in) before generation of the e-way bill. The documents such as tax invoice or bill of sale or delivery challan and Transporter's Id, who is transporting the goods with transporter document number or the vehicle number in which the goods are transported, must be available with the person who is generating the e-way bill.

 

How to correct mistake in e-way bill

If there is a mistake, incorrect or wrong entry in the e-way bill, then it cannot be edited or corrected. Only option is cancellation of eway bill and generate a new one with correct details.

 

Is e-way bill applicable to all goods

The e-way bill is required to transport all the goods except exempted under the notifications or rules. Movement of handicraft goods or goods for job-work purposes under specified circumstances also requires e-way bill even if the value of consignment is less than fifty thousand rupees. Kindly refer to the e-way bill rules for other exemptions.

 

Validity Period of e-way bill

Validity of the e-way bill depends upon the distance the goods have to be transported. In case of regular vehicle or transportation modes, for every 100 KMs or part of its movement, one day validity has been provided. And in case of Over Dimensional Cargo vehicles, for every 20 KMs or part of its movement, one day validity is provided. And this validity expires on the midnight of last day.

 

Determining day to calculate validity of e-way bill

This can be explained by following examples -
(i) Suppose an e-way bill is generated at 00:04 hrs. on 14th March. Then first day would end on 12:00 midnight of 15 -16 March. Second day will end on 12:00 midnight of 16 -17 March and so on.

(ii) Suppose an e-way bill is generated at 23:58 hrs. on 14th March. Then first day would end on 12:00 midnight of 15 -16 March. Second day will end on 12:00 midnight of 16 -17 March and so on.

 

 

Transactions for which e-way bill is compulsory

For transportation of goods in relation to all types of transactions such as outward supply whether within the State or interstate, inward supply whether from within the State or from interstate including from an unregistered persons or for reasons other than supply also e-way bill is mandatory. Please refer relevant notifications/rules for details. However, from 1st April 2018, e-way is required only for interstate movement. The e-way requirement for intra state movement will be notified later.

 

Part A Slip

Part-A Slip is a temporary number generated after entering all the details in PART-A. This can be shared or used by transporter or yourself later to enter the PART-B and generate the E-way Bill. This will be useful, when you have prepared invoice relating to your business transaction, but don't have the transportation details. Thus you can enter invoice details in Part A of eway bill and keep it ready for entering details of mode of transportation in Part B of eway bill.

 

It is mandatory to enter vehicle number on e-way bill

If you don't enter the vehicle number for transportation by road or transport document number for other cases, the system will show you the PART-A slip. It indicates that you have not completed the e-way bill generation process. Only when you enter the Part-B details, e-way bill will be generated.

 

 

Generating e-way bill from Part A slip

Part-A Slip is entry made by user to temporarily store the document details on the e-way bill system. Once the goods are ready for movement from the business premises and transportation details are known, the user can enter the Part-B details and generate the e-way bill for movement of goods. Hence, Part-B details convert the Part-A slip into e-way bill.

 

Documents needed to carry along with goods

The person in charge of a conveyance shall carry the invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, bill of entry as the case may be and a copy of the e-way bill number generated from the common portal. Please refer relevant rules for details.

 

Generating e-way bill from different registered place of business

The registered person can generate the e-way bill from his account from any registered place of business. However, he/she needs to enter the address accordingly in the e-way bill. He/she can also create sub-users for a particular business place and assigned the role for generating the e-way bill to that sub user for that particular business place.

 

How to enter part A details by tax payer when he himself is transporting goods

Sometimes, taxpayer wants to move the goods himself. E-way bill Portal expects the user to enter transporter ID or vehicle number. So if he wants to move the goods himself, he can enter his GSTIN in the transporter Id field and generate Part-A Slip. This indicates to the system that he is a transporter and he can enter details in Part-B later when transportation details are available.

 

When consignee or consignor is not having GSTN No what to enter

If the consignor or consignee is unregistered taxpayer and not having GSTIN, then user has to enter 'URP' [Unregistered Person] in corresponding GSTIN column.

 

 

Starting time of validity of e-way bill

The validity of the e-way bill starts when first entry is made in Part-B i.e. vehicle entry is made first time in case of road transportation or first transport document number entry in case of rail/air/ship transportation, whichever is the first entry. It may be noted that validity is not re-calculated for subsequent entries in Part-B.

 

How to calculate validity of e-way bill

The validity period of the EWB is calculated based on the 'approx. distance' entered while generating the EWB. For every 100Kmsone day is a validity period for EWB as per rule and for part of 100 KM one more day is added. For ex. If approx. distance is 310Kms then validity period is 3+1 days. For movement of Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC), the validity is one day for every 20 KM (instead of 100 KM) and for every 20KM or part thereof one more day is added. Please refer relevant rules for details.

 

How distance is calculated in case of import and export

The approximate distance for movement of consignment from the source to destination has to be considered based on the distance within the country. That is, in case of export, the consignor place to the place from where the consignment is leaving the country, after customs clearance and in case of import, the place where the consignment is reached the country to the destination place and cleared by Customs.

 

Whether e-way bill is required when consumer himself is transporting goods

Yes. As per the e-way bill rules, e-way bill is required to be carried along with the goods at the time of transportation, if the value is more than Rs. 50,000/-. Under this circumstance, the consumer can get the e-way bill generated from the taxpayer or supplier, based on the bill or invoice issued by him. The consumer can also enroll as citizen and generate the e-way bill himself.

 

Can the e-way bill be modified or edited or cancelled

The e-way bill once generated cannot be edited or modified. Only Part-B can be updated. However, if e-way bill is generated with wrong information, it can be cancelled and generated afresh. The cancellation is required to be done within twenty four hours from the time of generation.

 

Reason of system not allowing editing

The system allows editing the details of e-way bill entries before submission. However, if the products/commodities details are entered, it will not allow editing some fields as the tax rates will change. To enable this, please delete the products and edit the required fields and enter the products again.

 

Why invalid format message is coming while entering vehicle number

The system expects you to enter the vehicle number details in proper format. Please see the format details in the help with the vehicle entry field.