Transporters and courier services in the country are waiting with bated breath for a smooth rollout of the E-Way Bill system after its relaunch on April 1 by the Union finance ministry.
The E-Way or Electronic Way Bill system for inter-state movement of goods above Rs 50,000 was made mandatory in the country from Sunday midnight.
The indirect tax authority, Goods and Services Tax Council, had earlier decided to make E-Way Bills mandatory from April 1, 2018.
The hiccups faced by E-Way Bill registries included a slow and often non-responsive system, affecting movement of goods across state borders.
This time, on day 1, total 2.59 lakh E-Way Bills were generated on the e-bill portal of GST Network (GST-N). A total of 11.28 lakh taxpayers have registered themselves on the E-Way Bill portal so far.
"Transporters are also slowly joining in. About 20,000 transporters have also registered themselves on the E-Way Bill portal," said UIDAI chairman, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, who has also taken over as the interim chairman of the GST Network – the IT backbone for GST tax network.
The GST-N have arranged for a call centre with 100 handlers dedicated to address issues faced by taxpayers and to help them resolve those issues related to E-Way Bills, said Pandey.
E-Way Bills could be generated through a number of modes like web, android app, SMS – using bulk upload tool, and API based site to site integration.
The system is also able to generate Consolidated E-Way Bills for goods to be moved across more than one state borders.
A person who has generated an E-Way Bill can cancel it within 24 hours of booking it, a finance ministry press release said.
Of the more than 4.63 lakh E-Way Bills filed till Monday, a vast majority were from Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The E-Way Bill system is being touted by the Union government as one being pushed at the behest of honest taxpayers.
"People will take time to adjust to the new E-Way Bill system, but over a period of time authorities will start to make inspections on goods being moved," said finance and revenue secretary, Hasmukh Adhia.
"We had many requests from honest taxpayers to quickly bring in the E-Way Bill system," said Adhia, adding that the system will be able to detect tax evaders and unearth black money.
Since the implementation of the nationwide GST in July last year, the investigations arm of GST – Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DG GSTI) – have registered 200 cases for violations of anti-profiteering provisions under the GST Act.
The E-Way Bill system for inter-state goods transport is being rolled out in a phased manner. In the first phase, it has been rolled out across 17 states by April 14, while in the remaining states it would be completed by May 1, the finance secretary said.