GST Council decides to roll out e-way bill by June 2018

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Dec 18, 2017

On December 16, the GST Council decided on a nationwide rollout of the e-way bill system and stated that it will be put in place by June 1 next year following the sufficient preparation of the IT network.

Following the latest ruling by the GST Council at their 24th meeting, businesses transporting goods such as garments and other fast moving consumer goods across India will have to provide an e-way bill which will indicate the contents and value of their shipment from which any GST charges can be calculated. This e-way bill will be generated by the GSTN online portal and will be required when goods valued at over 50,000 Indian rupees are transported by any registered person or business.

This new GST ruling will be implemented nationwide by June 1, 2018, according to the GST Council. From then on, the old system where physical waybills had to be obtained from VAT authorities will be replaced by an easier, online version. Each e-way bill will have its own identification number, EBN, which will be available to the supplier, recipient, and the transporter.

Saturday’s meeting was chaired by the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, and, when addressing the issue of what to do before the bill’s national rollout is complete, it was decided that the states were authorised to continue their own separate e-way bill systems until the national e-way Bill is ready.

Some traders have opined that a partial rollout will cause problems and so a swift national rollout has been set as a priority. The Finance Ministry said in a statement that a trial launch will begin on January 16 where e-way bills will be optional and February 1 will see the launch of the national rollout.

Although the national e-way bill launch is slated for February 1, there will be some flexibility allowing different states to implement the system at their own pace. The Finance Ministry said in a statement that: "While the system for both inter-state and intra-state e-way bill generation will be ready by January 16, the states may choose their own timings for implementation of [the] e-way bill for intra-state movement of goods on any date before June 1, 2018."