E-way bill: Bihar demands necessary troubleshooting mechanism

The Bihar government has flagged implementation concerns surrounding the e-way bill, asking for a 24-hour troubleshooting mechanism and setting up a helpdesk before rolling out the system.
With effect from February 1, transporters will have to carry an electronic-way bill or e-way bill while moving goods among states, as the government moves to check tax evasion.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi has written to Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia suggesting that a standard operating procedure be framed to deal with various scenarios that may arise during the generation and verification of e-way bills, to ensure uniformity in practices.
"A troubleshooting mechanism with a round-the-clock centralised and fully functional helpdesk is a critical requirement which must be put in place before we roll out the (e-way bill) system," Modi wrote in his letter.

A nodal officer in the GST Council or Revenue Department be appointed for addressing issues relating to e-way bill, he said.
"We must take every care to ensure hat the stakeholder system interface is relatively glitch free and that the new system avoids causing the disruptions...," Modi said.

Once the e-way bill system is implemented, tax avoidance will become extremely difficult as the government will have details of all goods above the value of Rs 50,000 moved and can spot the mismatch if either the supplier or the purchaser does not file tax returns.
The all powerful GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts, had on December 16, 2017, decided to implement e-way bill for inter-state movement of goods from February 1, 2018.

Besides, an 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.
E-way bill is an electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on the GSTN (common portal). Movement of goods of more than Rs 50,000 in value cannot be made by a registered person without an e-way bill.
"I would also urge providing an MIS which informs the state administrator about the vehicles and e-way bills generated in respect of consignments destined to the particular state," he said.
This would help ease the process of verification and ensure efficient use of resources besides obviating the need to conduct random verification, Modi added.