What is eWay Bill? Rules and Registration Process

E-Way bill or electronic Way Bill a document that is to be carried by the person in charge of conveyance. It is generated from the GST Common Portal for the eWay Bill system on commencement of movement of goods exceeding the value of Rs. 50,000 in relation to supply or for reasons other than supply or due to inward supply from an unregistered person.

A GST-registered person cannot transport goods in a vehicle whose value exceeds Rs. 50,000 (Single Invoice/bill/delivery challan) without an e-way bill that is generated on ewaybillgst.gov.in. The facility for the generation and cancellation of e-way bills has also been made available through SMS. When an eWay bill is generated, a unique eWay Bill Number (EBN) is allocated and is available to the supplier, recipient, and transporter. The person in charge of a conveyance shall carry the invoice or Bill of Supply or Delivery Challan, and a copy of the e-way bill or the e-way bill number, either physically or mapped to a Radio Frequency Identification Device embedded on to the conveyance in such manner as may be notified by the Commissioner.

When Should an eWay bill be generated?

The eWay bill is required to be generated at the time of the transport of goods by every registered person if the value of the consignment exceeds INR 50,000. Further, for certain specified Goods, the bill needs to be generated mandatorily even if the value of the consignment of Goods is less than Rs. 50,000 like:

↪ Inter-State movement of Goods by the Principal to the Job-worker by Principal/ registered Job-worker
↪ Inter-State Transport of Handicraft goods by a dealer exempted from GST registration

Registration on E-way Bill portal

All the registered persons under GST need to register on the portal of e-way bill separately i.e  www.ewaybillgst.gov.in using their GSTIN. An OTP is sent to the registered mobile number registered with GST Portal once GSTIN is entered. After authentication, the system enables GST-registered individuals to generate/her username and password for the e-way bill system. After the generation of the username and password of his/her choice, he/she may proceed to make entries to generate e-way bills.

E-way bill Format

There are two different parts of the GST E-way bill. Part A needs to be filed by the supplier and recipient and Part B is for the transporter.

Part A

↪ GSTIN of the recipient
↪ Place of delivery with PIN Code 
↪ Invoice/Challan number and the date of issue
↪ Value of goods
↪ HSN code
↪ Transport document number (Goods Receipt Number /Railway Receipt Number/Airway Bill Number/Bill of Lading Number)
↪ Reasons for transportation

Part B

It contains the details of the transporter like -
↪ Transport Document number indicates Goods Receipt Number or Railway Receipt Number or Airway Bill Number or Bill of Lading Number.
↪ Place of Delivery indicating the PIN Code
↪ Details of the bill of entry shall be entered in place of the invoice where the consignment pertains to an import. It should be noted that Part B of the e-Way Bill is not required to be filled where the distance between the consigner or consignee and the transporter is less than 50 Kms and transport is within the same state.

Validity period for e-way bill

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

One can extend the validity of the e-way bill, if the consignment is not reaching the destination within the validity period due to exceptional circumstances like natural calamity, law and order issues, trans-shipment delay, accident of conveyance, etc. The transporter needs to explain this reason in detail while extending the validity period.

Non Applicability of E-waybill generation

It is not necessary to generate an e-Waybill in the following cases :

↪ When the consignment value is less than Rs. 50,000/-
↪ When the mode of transport is a non-motor vehicle
↪ When the goods are transported from Customs port, airport, air cargo complex or land customs station to Inland Container Depot (ICD) or Container Freight Station (CFS) for clearance by Customs.
↪ When the goods are transported under Customs supervision, under customs seal or under Customs Bond from ICD to Customs port or from one customs station to another.
↪ In case of Transit cargo transported to or from Nepal or Bhutan.
↪ Movement of goods caused by defense formation under the Ministry of Defense as a consignor or consignee.
↪ When empty Cargo containers are being transported
↪ Consignor transporting goods to or from between place of business and a weighbridge for weighment at a distance of 20 kms, accompanied by a Delivery challan.
↪ Goods being transported by rail where the Consignor of goods is the Central Government, State Governments or a local authority.
↪ When the goods specified as exempt from E-Way bill requirements in the respective State/Union territory GST Rules.
↪ Transport of certain specified goods which includes the list of exempt supply of goods, Annexure to Rule 138(14), goods treated as no supply as per Schedule III, Certain schedule to Central tax Rate notifications.

Conclusion

The GST authorities believe that the e-way bill provision aims to remove the ills of the erstwhile waybill system prevailing under VAT in different states, which was a major contributor to the bottlenecks at the check posts. Moreover different states prescribed different e-way bill rules which made compliance difficult. The e-way bill provisions under GST will bring in a uniform e-way bill rule which will be applicable throughout the country. The physical interface will pave way for the digital interface which will facilitate faster movement of goods. It is bound to improve the turnaround time of vehicles and help the logistics industry by increasing the average distances traveled, reducing the travel time as well as costs.