ELECTRONIC WAY BILL - Transportation of goods under GST regime

[Mr. M. GOVINDARAJAN]

Draft Rule

Recently two draft rules relating to GST have been released for the comments of the stakeholders viz., ‘Electronic way bill’ and ‘Assessment and Audit’.    The draft ‘Electronic Way bill’ (‘Bill’ for short) contains six rules dealing with the generation of electronic way bill and related procedures.

Generation of electronic way bill

Rule 1 provides fixes the threshold limit for causing the generation of electronic way bill.  The said Rule provides that every registered person who causes movement of goods of consignment value exceeding ₹ 50,000/- in relation to supply or for reasons other than supply or due to inward supply from an unregistered person, shall, before the commencement of the movement, furnishing information relating to the goods consigned.  The information shall be furnished in Part A of Form GST INS – 01 electronically on the common portal.

The threshold limit is very less.  This may be increased at least to ₹ 10 lakhs.

Generation of electronic way bill by the registered person

Where the goods are transported by the registered person as a consignor or the recipient of supply as the consignee, may furnish information in Part B of Form No. GST INS – 01 and generate the electronic way bill in Form GST INS – 1 electronically on the common portal.  The registered person may use his own conveyance or a hired one.

Generation of electronic way bill by the transporter

Where the electronic way bill is not generated as aforesaid and the goods are handed over to a transporter, the registered person shall furnish the information relating to the transporter in Part B of Form No. GST INS – 01 on the common portal.  The electronic way bill shall be generated by the transporter on the common portal on the basis of information furnished by the registered person in Part A of Form GST – INS 01.

Voluntary generation

The electronic way bill may be generated by the registered person or the transporter even the threshold limit is below ₹ 50,000/-.

Generation of electronic way bill by an unregistered person

Where the movement is caused by an unregistered person either in his own conveyance or a hired one or through a transporter, he or the transporter may, at their option, generate the electronic way bill in Form GST INS – 01 on the common portal in the manner prescribed.  Where the goods are supplied by an unregistered supplier to a recipient, who is also registered, the movement shall be said to be caused by such recipient if the recipient is known at the time of commencement of movement of goods.

Electronic way bill Number

Rule 1(2) provides that upon generation of the electronic way bill on the common portal, a unique electronic way bill number (EBN) shall be made available to-

• the supplier;
• the recipient; and
• the transporter

on the common portal.          

Transfer of goods from one conveyance to another

Rule 1(3) provides that any transporter transferring goods from one conveyance to another in the course of transit shall, before such transfer and further movement of goods, generate a new electronic way bill on the common portal in Form GST INS – 01 specifying the mode of transport.

Consolidated electronic way bill

Rule 1(4) provides that where multiple consignments are intended to be transported in one conveyance, the transporter shall indicate the serial number of electronic way bills generated in respect of each such consignment electronically on the common portal.  A consolidated electronic way bill in Form GST INS – 02 shall be generated by him on the common portal prior to the movement of the goods.

Where the consignor has not generated Form  GST INS – 01 as aforesaid and the value of goods is more than ₹ 50,000/- the transporter shall generate Form GST INS – 01 on the basis of invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan.  The transporter shall also generate a consolidated electronic way bill in Form GST INS – 02 on the common portal prior to the movement of the goods.

Furnishing of information

Rule 1(5) provides that the information furnished in Part of Form GST INS – 01 shall be made available to the registered supplier on the common portal who may utilize the same for furnishing the details in Form GSTR – 1( Details of outward supplies of taxable goods and/or services effected).  When information has been furnished by an unregistered supplier in Form GST INS – 01, he shall be informed electronically, if the mobile number or the e-mail is available.

Cancellation of electronic way bill

Rule 1(6) provides that where the electronic way bill has been generated but goods are either not being transported or not being transported as per the details furnished in the electronic way bill, the electronic way bill may be cancelled electronically on the common portal, within 24 hours of generation of the electronic way bill.  An electronic way bill cannot be cancelled if it has been verified in transit.

Validity period

Rule 1(7) provides that an electronic way bill or a consolidated electronic way bill generated shall be valid according to the distance covered from the relevant date, as detailed below-

• Less than 100 Km – validity period is ONE DAY;
• 100 Km or more but less than 300 km – THREE DAYS;
• 300 Km or more but less than 500 km – FIVE DAYS;
• 500 Km or more but less than 1000 km – TEN DAYS;
• 1000 km or more – FIFTEEN DAYS.

The Commissioner may, by notification, extend the validity period of electronic way bill for certain categories of goods as may be specified therein.

The ‘relevant date’ shall mean the date on which the electronic way bill has been generated  and the period of validity shall be counted from the time in  which the electronic way bill has been generated.

Acceptance of consignment

Rule 1(8) provides that the details of electronic way bills shall be made available to the recipient, if registered, on the common portal, who shall communicate his acceptance or rejection of the consignment covered by the electronic way bill.  If he does not communicate his acceptance within 72 hours of the details being made available to him on the common portal, it shall be deemed that he has accepted the said details.

Validity of electronic way bill

Rule 1(9) provides that the electronic way bill generated under this rule or SGST shall be valid in the State.  The facility of generation and cancellation of electronic way bill may also be made available through SMS.

Documents

Rule 2 provides for the documents and devices to be carried by a person in charge of a conveyance.

The person in charge of a conveyance shall carry the invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan and a copy of the electronic way bill number, either physically or mapped to a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) embedded on the conveyance in such manner as notified by the Commissioner.

A registered person may obtain an Invoice Reference Number from the common portal by uploading a tax invoice issued by him in Form GST INV – 1 and produce the same for verification by the proper officer in lieu of the tax invoice and such number shall be valid for a period of 30 days from the date of uploading.  Where the registered person uploads the invoice, the information in Part A of Form GST INS – 01 shall be auto-populated by the common portal on the basis of the information furnished in Form GST INV – 1.

The Commissioner may, by notification, require a class of transporters to obtain a unique RFID and get the device embedded on the conveyance and map the electronic way bill to the RFID prior to the movement of the goods.  (It is an additional compliance required to be complied under GST regime.  It is reported that compliance is more the in the GST Regime).

The Commissioner, where circumstances so warrant, may, by notification, require the person-in-charge of conveyance to carry the following documents instead of the electronic way bill-

• tax invoice or bill or supply or bill of entry; or
• a delivery challan, where the goods are transported other than by way of supply;

Verification of documents and conveyances

Rule 3 provides that the Commissioner or an officer empowered by him in this behalf may authorize the proper officer to intercept any conveyance to verify the electronic way bill number in physical form for all inter-State and intra-State movement of goods. 

The Commissioner shall get RFID readers installed at places where verification of movement of goods is required to be carried out and verification of movement of vehicles shall be done through such RFID readers where the electronic way bill has been mapped with RFID.

Physical verification of conveyances shall be carried out by the proper officer as authorized by the Commissioner or an officer empowered by him in his behalf.  On receipt of specific information of evasion of tax, physical verification of a specific conveyance can also be carried out by any officer after obtaining necessary approval of the Commissioner or an officer authorized by him in this behalf.

Inspection and verification of goods

Rule 4 provides that a summary report of every inspection of goods shall be recorded online by proper officer in Part A of Form GST INS – 03 within 24 hours of inspection and the final report in Part B of Form GST INS – 03 shall be recorded within 3 days of the inspection.   Where the physical verification of goods being transported on any conveyance has been done during transit at one place within the State or in any other State, no further physical verification of the said conveyance shall be carried out again in the State, unless specific information relating to evasion of tax is made available subsequently.

Detention of vehicle

Rule 5 provides that where a vehicle has been intercepted and detained for a period exceeding 30 minutes, the transporter may upload the said information in Form GST INS – 04 on the common portal.