On
a sleepy Saturday afternoon, while most of us were rubbing our eyes and
wondering what to order for lunch, a bunch of ministers & members of the
GST Council were furiously debating & discussing on videoconference in the
24th GST Council Meet that was urgently called for one day in
advance.
As
the restaurant you ordered from dispatched your meal, the GST Council too
disseminated an important piece of information that read on the news ticker as
follows:
Outcome
of GST Council Meet -
Council
OKs Mandatory Compliance Of Bill For Inter State Mvmt From Feb 1
Council
For Uniform e-Way Bill For Both Inter & Intra State From June 1
Facility
For Bill To Be Available From January 15 For Trial Runs
Now,
before you accuse me of spoiling your lunch plans, I must tell you, this ruling
does take the taste away from a lot of people’s lunches. Here’s why -
“The
E-Way bill is, essentially, an electronic document generated on the GST Network
portal; required for movement of goods worth more than Rs 50,000. So, come June
1, transporters will have to procure e-way bill from the GST Network portal
when hauling goods worth more than Rs 50,000, within or outside a state.
To generate an e-way bill, the supplier and transporter will have to enter
details of the haul in the GSTN portal. This will create an unique e-way bill
number which will be sent to the supplier, transporter and the receiver. The
e-way bill thus generated will be valid for a period of 15 days, with one day
of travelling for 100 km and 15 days for more than 1,000 km transit.” Phew…you just
read that. Now imagine having to do this, every time you have to send goods
across the country.
The
Brokerage Edelweiss – has enlisted the Key Features of this E-Way Bill, They
Are –
Under
the proposed rules, movement of goods worth more than INR50,000 by a registered
entity will require an “e-way” bill wherein entity will be required to upload
prior information of the consignment on the GST portal online.
• In case the e-way bill is not generated by
the registered entity and the goods are handed over to a transporter, the
registered entity shall furnish the information relating to transporter and an
e-way bill will be generated by the transporter.
• The registered entity will also be required
to furnish information and generate the e-way bill for all inward supplies from
an unregistered player.
• The entity carrying the goods will be
required to carry the e-way bill along with the invoice/bill of supply/delivery
challan. The facility of generation and cancellation of e-way bills may also be
made available through SMS.
• Details of e-way bill shall be made available
to the registered recipient on a common portal and will have to be approved or
rejected by the registered recipient within 72 hours, else it would be deemed
to be approved by the recipient.
•
E-way bills will have a validity period of 1-15 days, depending on the distance
to be travelled. The authorised tax officials can intercept conveyance during
transit to verify e-way bills to check tax evasion.
The objective is to streamline movement of goods across and inside state
borders and keep track of inter- and intra-state goods transport for taxation
purposes. However, the cumbersome procedure requirement of yet another document
empowers inspectors to stop vehicles at will and conduct checks.
The
introduction of the e-way bill has been a contentious issue, with businesses
protesting against the burden of additional paperwork and processes that would
come along with it. So much so, that the law advisory panel set up to advice
changes to the GST laws and rules itself, has recommended deferring the e-way
bill till 2019. But, with the Government’s GST collection declining to Rs 83346
crore in October, from the Rs 90000 crore plus, in each of the first three
months after the new tax regime was rolled out on July 1, something had to
give.
Just
a few questions that need to be answered -
1)
Will
the e-way bill actually help in increasing GST revenue?
2)
Is
the Rs. 50000 threshold too low? There’s been a request to increase it to 2,00,000
3)
E-way
bills will have a validity period of 1-15 days, depending on the distance to be
travelled. Hard-coding this may take have an adverse impact on exceptions
(heavy machinery that may take more than the stipulated time for travel)
4)
Multi-Modal
Logistics? What if something is sent via plane, truck and then mini-van? Would
that require more bills?
5)
For
Logistics Companies carrying goods from multiple clients – will they require
separate bills along with an additional consolidated e-way bill? eComm Players will be very confused, no?
6)
Is
the system ready for the massive influx of data w.r.t e-way bills? The GSTN
portal itself has had issues; who’s to say this will be fool proof? Also, are
15 Days (Jan 15 to Feb 1) enough to test the e-way bill platform?
7)
What
does the e-way bill have; that an invoice doesn’t? Why the need for yet another
document?
I
gather, these are the very issues which the Government, Tax Planners &
Consultants are working overtime towards addressing. On the sidelines; I'm sure, there’s a totally different bunch of people who are addressing how to
circumvent this regulation. Meanwhile, the businessmen are sweating and the
organized logistics industry is licking their fingers on prospects of more
business share from the unorganized sector. Only time will tell the answer to
this key question – Is the E-Way Bill an Easy Way of Doing Business; or is it
the Inspector Saying, It’s My Way on the Highway!
