Complete guide to E-way Bills in India GST - Updated For 2022

Digitization of processes is not limited to private companies anymore. The government too is steadily digitizing its processes for the industry. The E-way bill is one such move by the government to help the companies with transportation. How and what is E-waybill, you must be wondering.

To explain, when the goods travel from one place to another, or even beyond the borders of a state, you cannot just move the goods without a permit. You need approval by the government to transport your goods. This permit is the E-Waybill. The interesting fact about the E-way bill is that it is generated digitally so that you don’t get in trouble during transportation.

What is E-Way Bill in India GST?

Electronic Way Bill (E-Way Bill) is a unique bill/document that is generated electronically for the particular movement/consignment of goods from one place to another. This movement is either interstate or intrastate and of value more than INR 50,000, required under the current GST regime.

A single e-Way Bill Number (EBN) is made available to the transporter, supplier, recipient after the generation of e-Way Bill.

It is electronically created through the GSTN on the E-way bill portal. When an eway bill is generated, a unique E-way Bill Number (EBN) is allocated and is available to the supplier, recipient, and the transporter. Furthermore, E-waybill can also be generated or cancelled through SMS, Android App and by site-to-site integration through API.

Initially, E-way bill was the part of the VAT system wherein it was made under the Delivery Note. This conveyance note was conveyed alongside the goods which gave the evidence that goods being transported have been updated on the system beforehand to avoid any expense.

This system used to be manual wherein the Delivery Notes were gathered from the VAT office and later on its use proclamation was submitted. However, incase of an E-way the fashion is slightly different, the process is not completely manual and 95% digitized.

List of states where Intrastate E-Way Bill is applicable:

List of Union Territories Where Intrastate E Way Bill is Applicable

• Andaman & Nicobar
• Chandigarh
• Dadar & Nagar Haveli
• Daman & Diu
• Lakshadweep

Who needs to generate an E-Way Bill?

Any transporter who starts the business of carrying goods should be aware of all the regulations related to E-way bill generation. The following persons can generate the E-way Bill.

Registered Person
Any registered individual when there is the movement of goods above the value of Rs. 50,000 it is mandatory to generate an e-way bill  

Unregistered Person
If any unregistered persons are carrying out transportation operations will also need to generate e-Way Bill. Yet, the recipient will need to ensure that all the requisite compliances will adhere to and all documentation is in order when an unregistered person completes a supply transaction to a registered individual.

Transporter
If the supplier does not prepare the documentation, a transporter needs to generate an e-way bill for carrying a consignment of goods by rail, air, or freight.

What are the Contents of the E-way Bill?

The E-way bill contains several details which is divided into part A and part B:

Part A

• GSTIN of the recipient
• Place of delivery (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

• Part B contains the details of the transporter
• Transport Document number indicates Goods Receipt Number or Railway Receipt Number or Airway Bill Number or Bill of Lading Number.
• Place of Delivery shall indicate the PIN Code of place of delivery.
• Details of bill of entry shall be entered in place of invoice where the consignment pertains to an import.
• Reason for Transportation shall be chosen

Applicability of E-Way Bill

As we have mentioned before, a registered company, individual, must get an E-way bill made when the products that are to be transported from one place to the other are worth Rs.50,000. The applicability of the E-way bill is not mandatory for all but applicable in the following scenarios.

• Sales of Goods
• Transportation of goods for all other reasons other than supply. For instance, transportation of goods, starting with one branch then onto the next branch/warehouse.
• Goods are bought from an unregistered company or individual by an enlisted individual and goods should be moved. In such cases, the registered individual needs to create the e-way bill.
• E-way bill is required in all cases, for transportation of goods inside a similar state or union territory, intrastate deals.
• The registered company, individual or the carrier might create and carry the e-way bill on his own will regardless of whether the worth of goods is under Rs. 50,000.
• Where the goods are transported from business to place of carrier for additional transportation and such distance is under 10 km then, at that point subtleties of such movement aren't needed to be outfitted.
  

E-way Bill is not required in the following cases:

• The mode of transport is non-motor vehicle
• 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 the 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 specified 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.
  

E-way bill is to be generated irrespective of value of consignment in following cases:

• Goods are sent by someone located in one state to a job worker located in any other State, the e-way bill shall be generated by the one sending, perhaps the owner.
• Where handicraft goods are transported from one State to another by a person who has been exempted from the requirement of obtaining registration under clauses (i) and (ii) of section 24. Meaning of handicraft for this purpose is as handicraft defined in notification No.32/2017-Central Tax dated 15.09.2017.
  

When to generate an E-way bill

There is a generation of E-way bill when there is a supply of goods in a vehicle of cost more than Rs. 50,000 either with a single invoice or with multiple invoices.

In case of an inward 'supply' from an unregistered taxpayer
The taxpayer who is in the purpose of sales of goods and supply of goods

An E Way Bill should be generated by a few specific products even when the product value is below 50000:

• Such as interstate transfer of handmade products which are exempted by GST registration.
• Some exemption don't have to generate E Way Bill
• There will not be E-way bill generation when the goods are transferred from one place to another in a Non - motor vehicle.
• To get an E Way Bill exemption when there is a transfer of the goods from the airport, customs port, air cargo complex, or land customs station to an inland container depot (ICD) or container freight station (CFS) clearance by customs.
• While transporting Empty cargo containers.
• Along with this, goods such as jewelry and household products do not have to generate an E Way Bill.
  

Steps to Generate E-Way Bill

The following are the steps to generate the E-way bill.

Step 1: Log in to E-Way Bill Portal https://ewaybill.nic.in/ with your own login credentials.

Note: It is compulsory to have a GST and transporter registration to generate E-way Bill.

Step 2: Click on the "Generate new" option, and the main menu page will appear with a new generation form.

Step 3: Fill the required details,

Select the translation type to "Outward" if you are a supplier

Select the translation type to "Inward" if you are the receiver and enter the supplier and recipient details along with GSTIN, wherever applicable. Some of the fields will be auto-populated after providing a GSTIN number.

Step 4: Provide goods description

• Product Name and Description must be filled correctly and complete just as you do it in your tax invoice.
• For the Product, enter HSN Code. Click here to find the HSN code.
• Enter the CGST/IGST applicable rates. IGST will be applicable for inter-state transport and SGST / CGST for intra-state transport.
• Enter the approx transportation distance, which will determine the validity of the E-way bill.

Step 5: Click on “Submit”

To generate your E-way bill, click on the "SUBMIT" button. The E-way bill will appear, which contains the E-way bill number and the QR Code that contains all the details. Print the copy of the Bill and provide it to the transporter who will carry it throughout the trip until the receiver gets the Bill.

GST 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,

The GST E Way Bill contains the following details, such as:

Documents required to generate eWay Bill

While registering for E Way Bill the Transporter, Supplier and the Recipient should have the following mentioned documents:

1. Invoice/Delivery Challan/Bill of Supply/ related to the goods consignment
2. For transportation by road – Vehicle number/Transporter ID, Part B of E-way bill has to be filed.
3. For transportation by rail, air, or ship – Transporter ID, Transport document number, and date on the document

The validity of an E-way bill

An E-way bill validity depends on the distance traveled by the vehicle holding goods in it for Transportation procedure.

Over Dimensional Cargo, if the distance is below 20 km, the validity is for a day. And for every additional 20 km, the day will increase by 1.

Vehicles that do not come Under Over Dimensional cargo, if the distance is below 100 km, the validity is for a day. And for every additional 100 km, the day will increase by 1.

E-way bill exemptions

There are some goods and transactions which do not require E-Way Bill and are exempt from the generation of E-Way Bill.

Exemption for Goods

• Natural/cultural stones or pearls/precious stones.
• Kerosene Oil under PDS.
• Liquid petrol gas for the supply of household and non-domestic use.
• Jewelry
• Curd, Lassi, Any Milk product.
• Fresh or Pasteurized milk
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Animals (Living), Plant, and trees.
• Animal flesh, meat
• Salt
• Rice or wheat flour which does not contain a specific brand.
• Stationery products
• Unprocessed tea leaves
  

Exemption for Transactions

Where there is a transfer of goods from one place to another, worth 50000 rupees it is not compulsory to generate an E-way bill

• In case the goods are transferred by Non - motorized vehicles.
• If the airport, airport, land customs station and air cargo complex, a container freight station (CFS) for clearance by customs, or to an inland container depot (ICD).
• Transportation of the goods within the area.
• Transportation of goods to the Ministry of Defence

Penalties for non-Generation of E-Way Bill

The consequences of not generating & carrying the EWay bill can result in both monetary and non-monetary losses to the taxpayer.

• Monetary Penalty

For the non-generation of an E-Way bill, the concerned person carrying the goods should pay a penalty of Rs. 10,000 or the equivalent amount of tax evaded (the greater of the two).

• Seized or Detained

The vehicle that is carrying goods without an Eway bill can be seized or detained. The vehicle will be set free only after making the payment of penalty and tax as set by the officer. Under this, there can be below mentioned situations:

1. The owner must pay 100% of the tax payable if he wishes to pay the penalty
2. If not, the penalty will be equal to 50% of the value of goods.

Advantages of the E-way Bill

Minimum Documentation

Transportation of goods involves a lot of paperwork. Especially, when it's an intra-state, inter-state movement. With an e-way bill you don't have to maintain the documentation physically, the e-way bill carries it all.

Moreover it is accessible for the transporters. There will never be a need for the physical documents once you have the e-way bill.

Cost Efficient

The E-way bill will reduce the calculated expense. E-way bill would build up accurate invoicing and hence would diminish extra charges.

Time Efficient

Faster movement of goods thereby optimum use of vehicle/resources.

Easy to Use

E-way bills are exceptionally easy to understand and simple to use. Indeed, even sellers can without much of a stretch self download the e-way bill.

Easy Generation of E-way Bills

E-way bills would be created effectively and rapidly, there is no enormous assignment to produce e-way bills. In the impending time it will be made exceptionally simple on the grounds that the public authority is working daintily.

Every coin has two sides, similarly E-way bills have their own set of disadvantages along with the advantages.

Disadvantages of E-way Bill

Poor Internet Network

Poor web network or not accessibility in the majority of areas can be a large concern.

Distinctive Assessment from Various States

Most states are unsettled about the e-way bill system. The vast majority of states need to execute their own e-way bill system, in the future it may very well be a huge cluster.

Errors in Creating E-way Bills

With e-way bills there are chances of errors that the e-way bill portal causes

Latest Developments in E-Way Bills

• E-way bill generation to be blocked from August 15 for returning non-filers.
• GST officers have been armed with real-time data of commercial vehicle movement on highways with integration of the e-way bill (EWB) system with FasTag and RFID. This move will help in live vigilance of such vehicles and check GST evasion.
• Six digit HSN code in GST has been made mandatory.
• Allowing e-way bills possible only for intra-state transportation of gold, not inter-state
• B2B and Export invoices having document type “TAX INVOICE” are not eligible for generation of e-way bills from the e-way bill portal.
• Invoices where IRN Not required like B2C invoices, Import etc. Direct e-way bills can be generated for these invoices.
• One of the Important changes in the e-way bill is the calculation of distance using the Postal Identification Number of the Seller & Buyer. The Distance between Two PINs  is being used for calculation of distance.

E-way Bill generation with Deskera

Deskera Books provides an easy and quick creation of E-way bills with just one click with a GST-ready application.

1. Our application allows you to pull all E-way bill related data with the fields which are mandatory for the E-way bill template in relevant inward and outward documents.
2. Once you have filled in this data, you can extract all this information in an excel sheet and validate it using an offline tool and thus avoiding manual data feeding for each transaction.
3. After validation E-way, you can upload it on the E-way bill portal. Hence, Deskera allows you to generate E-way bill reports for bulk transactions.
   

You can generate eWay Bills using Deskera Books easily and track their filing. Sign up for a free trial today and see it in action.

If you are looking for more information on India GST, please visit our Complete Guide on India GST.