GST Council plans to make electronic-way bill compulsory from Feb 1

The GST Council on Saturday decided to make rollout of all India electronic-way bill compulsory from February 1, two months ahead of the earlier plan.

The 24th meeting of the GST Council, held on Saturday through video conferencing under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, discussed the implementation of the e-way bill system in the country after reviewing readiness of hardware and software for its launch, an official statement said.

"The rules for implementation of nationwide e-way bill system for inter-state movement of goods on a compulsory basis will be notified with effect from February 1, 2018. This will bring uniformity across states for seamless inter-state movement of goods," the finance ministry said. Under GST rules, ferrying goods worth more than Rs 50,000 within or outside a state will require securing an electronic-way or e-way bill by prior online registration of the consignment.

Till such time as the national e-way Bill is ready, the states were authorised to continue their own separate e-way Bill systems, it added. As per the schedule of implementation, the nationwide e- way bill system will be ready to be rolled out on a trial basis latest by January 16, 2018, the Finance Ministry statement said.

Trade and transporters can start using this system on a voluntary basis from January 16. Subsequently, the rules for implementation of nationwide e-way bill system for inter-state movement of goods on a compulsory basis will be notified with effect from February 1, 2018. This will bring uniformity across the states for seamless inter-state movement of goods, it said.

The GST revenue for October stood at ₹ 83,346 crore, the lowest since the implementation of the new indirect tax regime from July 1. While the system for both inter and intra-State e-way bill generation will be ready next month, the Council decided that states may choose their own timings for implementation of the document for intra-state movement of goods on any date before 1st June, 2018.

"There are certain States which are already having system of e-way bill for intra-state as well as inter-state movement and some of those states can be early adopters of national e-way Bill system for intra-state movement also. But in any case, the uniform system of e-way bill for inter-state as well as intra-State movement will be implemented across the country by 1st June, 2018," the statement said.