What is eway bill? Eway Bill Rules – As per the Press Release by the Ministry of Finance on 31.01.2023, 8.3 crore eway bills were generated which was higher than the previous high of 7.9 crore in November, 2022. In August, 2023, eway bill generation reached a record high of 9.34 crores as per the data from GSTN. Thus, the concept of eway bill has helped the department to effectively track movement of goods in compliance with all the GST laws pertaining to such movement. However, before working on the generation of eway bills, we must understand what is eway bill and the eway bill rules.
E-way bill is an electronic document generated online on the GST portal when there is movement of goods as the undisputed and unambiguous evidence of such movement, details of goods and the parties involved. It is an effective tool to reduce the instances of fake invoices, taking benefit of fake ITC without actual supply and reducing the tax frauds. Eway bills are invoice based i.e. separate eway bills have to be made for each invoice.
Instances of tax frauds plugged in by the concept of eway bills
Case 1
A supplier makes actual supply of goods to the recipient without generating invoice. The recipient pays the supplier in cash and thus earlier this transaction would have evaded tax and would not have come in the radar of the GST department. However, now since eway bill is required for movement of such goods, the parties will not be able to evade the tax and the compliance on the same.
Case 2
A supplier generates an invoice without making any supply of goods. Since an invoice has been generated there is the risk of parties taking the benefit of fake ITC. However, now as per the eway bill rules, since eway bill is required for movement of such goods, the parties will not be able to claim any such fake ITC.
Eway Bill Rules
Applicability
As per the Eway bill rules, the concept of eway bill is on movement of goods and not supply of goods.
- Eway bills have to issued only for goods and not for services.
- As per the eway bill rules, eway bill has to be generated only when the value of the goods is exceeding Rs. 50,000/-. In this case, the meaning of ‘value of goods’ does not mean the assessable value of goods rather it means the ‘invoice value of goods’.
Exception :- There are 2 exceptions for this limit of Rs. 50,000/- for generating eway bills
- When the movement of goods is inter-state between the principal and the job worker or vice-versa, or
- Inter-state movement of goods by a dealer exempted from GST registration
However, where the movement of goods is from a DTA unit to a SEZ unit or vice versa located in the same state, there is no requirement to generate an eway bill, if the same has been exempted under Rule 138(14)(d) of the CGST Rules.
Who has to generate the eway bill?
As per the Eway Bill Rules, the eway bill has to generated when the value of the goods in movement exceeds Rs. 50,000/- to or from a registered person. Unregistered persons are also required to generate e-Way Bill. However, where a supply is made by an unregistered person to a registered person, the receiver will have to ensure all the compliances are met as if they were the supplier. Transporters carrying goods by road, air, rail, etc. also need to generate e-Way Bill if the supplier has not generated an e-Way Bill.
The supplier, recipient or transporter can get enrollment numbers by the GST department based on their PAN card or Aadhar card to generate eway bills even if they are not registered.
Eway Bill – Details to be mentioned
The eway bill contains 2 parts – Part A and Part B.
Part A contains the details of the supplier, recipient, goods in movement, invoice or transfer challan details.
Part B contains the details of the transporter and the legs of movement of such goods.
Generally, Part A is filled by the supplier or the recipient and Part B is filled by the transporter if not filled already by the supplier or the recipient.
Bulk eway bills and Consolidated eway bills
As per the Eway bill rules, Eway bills are invoice based i.e. separate eway bills have to be generated for each invoice. However, to ease this process, the concept of generating Bulk eway bills has been introduced. A bulk eway bill is generated when the person wants to generate eway bills in a single shot.
The person will have to download the JSON template from the portal and upload the particulars for all the eway bills to be generated and the separate eway bills will be generated in one shot.
Consolidated eway bill is used when there are multiple eway bills already generated that are being carried in one conveyance. The person will have to download the JSON template from the portal and upload the details of the eway bill numbers and the consolidated eway bill will be generated.
Exemption from generating Eway bills
As per the Eway bill rules, in the following cases, it is not required to generate eway bills :-
- When the movement of goods is through non-motorized vehicles
- Goods 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.
- Goods transported under Customs supervision or under customs seal
- Goods transported under Customs Bond from ICD to Customs port or from one custom station to another.
- Transit cargo transported to or from Nepal or Bhutan
- Movement of goods caused by defence formation under Ministry of defence as a consignor or consignee
- 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.
- Goods specifed as exempt from E-Way bill requirements in the respective State/Union territory GST Rules.
- Transport of certain specified goods- 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.