E Way bill — 8 things you should know about E Way bills as part of India GST

India introduced the e-way bill system under the GST in April 2018 to make sure there is higher tax transparency and hassle-free movement of goods from one state to another.

E-way bill is a must-know for any small business in India that is eligible to pay GST and is selling across state borders with transportation of goods. It is easy to oversee this important document amidst all the GST questions and submissions, and that can lead to penalties for the business.

An e-way bill is a permit document needed for the transportation of goods worth more than Rs. 50,000 form inter-state and intra-state. It contains details of the products, the consignor, the recipient, and the transporter. It is usually electronically generated through the GSTN.

1. Sections of E-way bill

An e-way bill has two main sections,

Part A contains,

• Recipient GSTIN
• PIN Code- Place of delivery
• Challan/Invoice number along with the issued date
• Total goods value
• HSN code number
• Transport document number(Goods Receipt Number, Railway Receipt Number, Airway Bill Number, Bill of Lading Number)
• Transportation reason

Part B contains the details of the transport, e.g., vehicle number.

2. When is an e-way bill generated?

The generation of the e-way bill much should be done before the products are shipped. It should include details of the goods, their consignor, recipient, and transporter.

E-way bill should generate for,

• Supply of goods.
• Non-supply transactions like export/import, the return of goods, job work, line sales, sale on approval basis, semi or completely knocked down supply, the supply of goods for exhibition or fair, and products used for personal consumption.

3. Who should generate an e-way bill?

• All registered persons who may be a consignee, consignor, recipient, and transporter can generate an e-way bill.
• A registered person who receives the supplies from an unregistered person., as the supplier is not registered, the recipient needs to follow the compliance-related procedure.
• If the consignor and the consignee both fail to generate an e-way bill despite handing over the goods to the transporter, then the carrier should make an e-way bill.

4. The validity of the E-way bill

The validity of E-Way Bill will start from the time at which the E-Way Bill has been generated based on the distance to be traveled and the type of Cargo, i.e., Normal Cargo or Over Dimensional Cargo.

Example 1: Suppose you generate the E-Way bill on 17 June 2019 at 5 PM for the transport of Cargo and will cover the distance of 87 km. This E-Way bill will be valid until midnight on 17 June 2019.

Example 2 — Suppose you generate the E-Way Bill on 17 June 2019 at 5 PM for the transport of Cargo and will cover the distance of 187 km. This E-Way bill will be valid until midnight on 19 June 2019.

5. Documents Required to Generate an E-Way Bill

• Tax invoice
• Registered mobile number
• Product details
• Details of the recipient
• Details of the transporter

6. E-Way bill exemptions

• If the value is less than Rs. 50.000 of the consignment.
• When the goods consigned are exempted from Goods and Service Tax.
• If there is the transportation of goods by non-motorized carriage (e.g., Railways), in this case, there is no need for an e-way bill, but challan/invoice must be available during the movement of goods.
• If goods are transported from a port, airport, air cargo complex, or land customs station, to a container freight station for customs clearance.

7. Advantages of e-way bills

Less documentation: All the existing state-wise documentation required for the movement of goods will never again be needed. The person to whom the vehicle belongs still needs to present physical copies as the device will be attached to the trucks, and the e-way bill can be mapped and verified through the machine.

Cost reduction: The E-way bill will reduce the logistic cost. E-way bills would reinforce proper invoicing, and along these lines would reduce tax avoidance.

Efficient transportation: It would increase the efficiency & speed of shipment. A truck in India covers an annual average distance of 85,000 km as compared to 1,50,000 to 2,50,000 km in developed countries, which poses a clear indication that our transportation systems need some reforms. E-way would help to reform the industry.

User-friendly e-way bill system: E-way bill systems & portal is very user friendly and secure. Even dealers can easily self download the e-way bill.

Easy and quick generation of e way bill: E-way bill will generate quickly and easily. There is no big task to create an e-way bill.

8. Penalties associated with the e-way bill?

Non-generation of an E-Way bill can carry a penalty of Rs.10,000. Apart from the penalty, the vehicle carrying the goods, or goods transported can be seized or detained.

E-way bill generation with Deskera

E-way bill application on Deskera Books

Deskera Books provides easy and quick creation of E-way bills with just one click with a GST-ready application.

1. Our application allows you to pull all E-way bill related data with the fields which are mandatory for the E-way bill template in relevant inward and outward documents.
2. Once you have filled in this data, you can extract all this information in an excel sheet and validate it using an offline tool and thus avoiding manual data feeding for each transaction.
3. After validation E-way, you can upload it on the E-way bill portal. Hence, Deskera allows you to generate E-way bill reports for bulk transactions.

Visit our website to learn more about Deskera Books.