An e-way bill is required for movement of goods worth
more than Rs 50,000 across state borders. Eway bill
trials began on January 16 and the system was formally
implemented on April 1. E-way bills for intra-state
transport, which involve movement of goods beyond 10 km,
will start on April 15 in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat,
Kerala, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, the government said
on Tuesday.
Trucks caught without e-way bills can be levied a
penalty of up to Rs 10,000 besides which the cargo can
be inspected to ascertain tax evasion.
A penalty to the tune of 100% of the tax being evaded
can be levied along with the tax itself. Both the
vehicle and the goods can be impounded as well.
The e-way bill mechanism is an integral part of the
goods and services tax (GST) regime that’s aimed at
plugging evasion.
Evasion was one of the reasons cited by the government
for the fall in GST revenue in the past few months.
GST collections hit a high of Rs 95,132 crore in October
before declining to Rs 85,931 crore in December 2017.
They have since recovered to Rs 89,264 in February but
are still below the peak.
Tax experts said businesses need to ensure that they
don’t slip up on e-way bill generation through error or
ignorance of the law.
“Businesses may face more scrutiny going forward as
clearly there seems to be an apprehension based on the
data that many dispatches are being made without
generation of eway bills,” said Anita Rastogi, partner,
GST and indirect tax, at PwC. “They need to put focus on
this area.”
Source::: The Economic Times, dated 10/04/2018.