States directed to implement e-way bill by June 1

The Centre on Tuesday reiterated that states must implement the national e-way bill system for intra-state movement of goods, latest by June 1.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla clarified that as per an earlier decision of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, states may choose any date before June 1 to implement the e-way bill, by exercising the powers under Rule 138A(5) of CGST/SGST Rules, 2017 jointly by the central and respective state governments.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after the 25th GST Council meeting in January, had said that the implementation of the e-way bill would start from February 1, with 15 states agreeing to implement it on a trial basis.

However, the trial phase for the generation of the new e-way bill was deferred on account of technical glitches.