Corporates welcome approval of e-way bill under GST

Following the approval of the inter-state e-way bill by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council earlier on Saturday, industry players welcomed the bill and said that it would lead to more stringent scrutiny of the movement of goods between states.

"The introduction of the e-way bill would not only help the tax authorities to monitor inter-state and intra-state movement of goods but also help reduce transportation time by reducing loss of time at check posts. It is also expected to help the dealers who do inter-state transactions in multiple states as the e-way bill process will now be common across states. However, to avoid any issues on the ground, the government can consider some field trials on test basis before implementation," said R Muralidharan, senior director, Deloitte India.

Further, Saloni Roy, senior director, Deloitte India added that with e-way bills transforming into a reality, intra state transactions will also be monitored.

"The Government is slowly introducing norms to capture transactions in goods more vigilantly. There has been a concern that e-way bills would result in delays and disruptions in trade movements. Though interstate movements under the VAT regime were tracked by states through exchange of forms, intra state transactions were free from such controls. However, e-way bills under GST shall change that with all transactions inter or intra state being covered," she added.

However, Ansh Bhargava, head-growth and strategy at Taxmann while acknowledging the advantages of the new implementation opined that the success of the same is largely dependent on the efficiency of the GST Network (GSTN) and other such factors.

"The success of e-way bill implementation again depends upon the quick response of GSTN and the other facilities from GSTN would be highly appreciable if the e-way bill facility is provided on the mobile app so that taxpayers find it convenient to remain under ease of compliance. Stringent provisions of e-way bill in regard to acceptance or rejection within stipulated time frame should be currently postponed for its effective implementation," he said.

Earlier in the day, the GST Council in its 24th meeting held through video conference decided that an inter-state e-way bill will be made compulsory from February 1, 2018.

The system is expected to be ready by January 16, and a uniform system of e-way bill for inter-state as well as intra-state movement will be implemented across the country by June 1, 2018.

During the meeting, which was chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, it was discussed that till the time a national e-way bill is ready, the states are authorised to continue their own separate e-way bill systems.

However, it was represented by the trade and transporters that this is causing undue hardship in the inter-state movement of goods and therefore, bringing in an early all india system of e-way bill has become a necessity.

The GST Council also reviewed the progress of readiness of hardware and software required for the introduction of nationwide e-way bill system.