E-way bill to be rolled out on Apr. 20 in six states

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi on Tuesday stated that the e-way bill mechanism for intra-state movement of goods would be rolled out on April 20 in six states.

Addressing a presser post a meeting of select Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council officials here, the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister said the e-way bill generation system would be rolled out in Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand starting Friday.

"From April 15, e-way bill generation was made mandatory for movement of goods in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. On April 16, 10,31,000 e-way bills were generated, out of which 2,60,000 were intra-state. The National Informatics Centre (NIC), which is in charge of the same, has the capacity to handle 75 lakh e-way bills. Highest number of bills generated were from Karnataka, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra. There is a 25 percent increase in e-way bill generation, and this number is expected to improve," he added.

With regards to the inspection of goods, Modi clarified that only designated officers can carry out any kind of investigation.

As per the decision of the GST Council, the e-way bill system for all inter-state movement of goods was rolled out from April 1, along with that for intra-state movement of goods in Karnataka.

The new system was implemented from April 15 in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

In today's meeting, Modi said the Group of Minister (GoM) held discussions with 40 stakeholders, including 15 indirect tax experts, to simplify the GST Return form.

Apart from this, the GoM also discussed matters related to the feasibility of bringing back the reverse charge mechanism (RCM).

"Discussions on the RCM will be continued in another meeting to be held in the first week of May. Stakeholders have been told to submit their opinion in seven days, which will be taken up for deliberation in the next GST council meeting," he said.

The minister also stated that the system of filing GSTR 3B would be continued even beyond June, and added that changes in the GST returns and software may extend up to December this year, along with efforts to commission a "Convergent Model".