Bumps along e-way bill road worry PwC; GST Council to deal with issues

Leading tax consultant PwC has recommended that the government allow a few changes to be made in the e-way bills for the goods and services tax (GST) to address concerns of traders. The GST Council is already looking at ways to deal with some issues that have cropped up.

“Once an e-way bill is generated, details (except those related to a vehicle) entered in it cannot be edited or modified. The only option is to cancel and generate a new e-way bill,” said the PwC report. 

Traders want a provision for e-way bills to be edited or amended within a reasonable period of time, said the report, adding that if the validity of an e-way bill was extended, they should be allowed to use the same bill number instead of having to generate a new bill and face issues related to reconciliation and in-transit verification by field officers.

The report claims that within the first month the roll-out of the e-way bill, a number of cases were reported of seizure of goods and detention of vehicles because of procedural gaps. “This is a stumbling block,” the report added.

The government has clarified the procedures for businesses and officers, but whether those on the field will be able to implement these efficiently remained to be seen, said the report. 

Pratik Jain, leader, indirect tax, PwC, said, “While the e-way bill generation process is more or less streamlined, we have noticed several errors by businesses in aspects such as extension, cancellation and providing correct vehicle details. It is important for large businesses to automate the process, so that the possibility of these errors, which can lead to penal consequences, are minimised.”

He added the government was likely to soon start using the e-way bill data to reconcile with transactions reported in the GST returns. 

The latest flashpoint was when the Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld a fine of ~13.2 million on Gati Kintetsu, a distribution and supply chain, for not filing a portion of an e-way bill. The company had defended its inability to fill the bill on account of technical problems, but the court ruled it had not raised the problem with the e-way bill portal. 

The ruling came as truckers went on strike on July 20, a day before the meeting of the GST Council, demanding solutions to their problems. The Council has decided to have a standard operating procedure to impose less severe penalties for small errors in e-way bills. 

It has also decided to provide radio-frequency identification of vehicles, linking them to the GST Network. For this, the Council will work with the Union transport ministry, to roll it out in six months. 

The PwC report also pointed out that while e-way bills could be generated or cancelled on the government portal, there was no window for their closure on successful delivery of goods. As a result, the bills were always active on the portal. 

Also, reports on the status of bills (generation, cancellation or rejection) can be downloaded from the portal for one day at a time. This requires businesses to download and keep track of reports on a daily basis for the purpose of reconciliation.