More leeway now in e-way system

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has introduced significant enhancements in the e-way bill system since last Friday.  

This system is now enabled to not allow the consignor/supplier to generate duplicate e-way bills based on his one document. The system checks for duplicates, based on the consignor’s GST identification number (GSTIN), document type and document number. If the consignor has generated one e-way bill on a particular invoice, then he will not be allowed to generate one more on the same invoice number. 

Even the transporter or consignee is not allowed to generate another e-way bill on the same invoice number of that consignor, if one has already been generated by the latter. Similarly, if the transporter or consignee has generated one e-way bill on the consignor’s invoice and any other party (consignor, transporter or consignee) tries to generate another, the system will issue an alert that there is already one e-way bill for that invoice and let him continue further only if he wants. 

Where large imported or export goods are transported in batches, in semi-knocked down (SKD) or completely knocked down (CKD) condition, there is one tax invoice or bill of entry. Each batch consignment moves under cover of a delivery challan, along with a copy of the tax invoice or bill of entry. The last batch moves under the delivery challan, along with original tax invoice or bill of entry. 

Illustration by Ajay Mohanty

GSTN says for CKD/SKD lots of import consignments, the ‘bill from party’ should be entered as the URP (unregistered party) or GSTIN of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) unit. The ‘state’ should be shown as ‘other country’ and the despatching address and PIN code of the location (airport/shipping yard/border check post) from where the consignment enters the country or the domestic tariff area (DTA). 

For CKD/SKD lots of export consignments, the ‘bill to party’ will be the URP or GSTIN of the SEZ unit, with the state as ‘other country’ and shipping address and PIN code of the location (airport/shipping yard/border check post) from where the consignment moves out of the country/DTA. 

GSTN now allows e-way generation for four types of ‘bill to–ship to’ transactions, depending on the number of parties involved in the billing and movement. A regular type refers to regular or normal transactions, where billing and goods movement are taking place between buyer and seller directly. The ‘bill to-ship to’ refers to transactions where three parties are involved — billing takes place between buyer and seller but the goods move from consignor to the third party, in line with buyer instructions. 

The third type, ‘bill from- despatch from’, refers to transactions where again three parties are involved and billing takes place between buyer and seller but the goods are moved by a consignor from a third party to the seller. 

The fourth type is a combination of the earlier two transactions and involves four parties. Billing takes places between buyer and seller but the goods are moved by a consignor from the third party to the fourth party, in line with the consignee’s request. GSTN has also made changes in the bulk generation tool by adding new columns.

Hopefully, these enhancements will help the trade generate e-way bills without difficulty.


E-mail: tncrajagopalan@gmail.com