The government has announced certain changes in the e-way bill system to tackle the goods and services tax (GST) evasion.

The new norms range from auto calculation of route distance to barring businesses from generating multiple bills based on a single invoice, the official website showed.

On April1, e-way bill system was launched for interstate movement of goods worth more than Rs 50,000. Similarly, the system for intra or within the state movement was introduced in a phased manner from April 15.

Considering problem of transporters, e-way bill system has been enabled to auto calculate the route distance for goods movement, based on the Postal PIN codes of source and destination locations. According to the revised norms, the user is allowed to enter the actual distance as per the goods movement. Nevertheless, it’s capped at 10 per cent above the distance displayed for the entry.

If  the system  has displayed  the distance between  Place A and B, based  on the PIN codes, as 655  KMs, then the user can enter  the actual distance up to 720KMs  (655KMs + 65KMs). In case, the source  PIN and destination PIN are same, the user can enter up to a maximum of 100KMs only.  If the PIN entered is incorrect, the system would alert the user as INVALID PIN  CODE”, the website said.

Nevertheless, the transported  could continue entering the distance. The government has also decided not to allow generation of multiple e-way bills based on one invoice.

“The transporters had represented to incorporate the provision to extend the E-way Bill, when the goods are in transit. The transit means the goods could be on Road or in Warehouse. This facility is being incorporated in the next version for the extension of E-way Bill”, the website also said.

Published On : 29-03-2019

Source : Financial Express