Enhancement in E-Way Bill and Restriction under Rule 138E of CST

E-way bill is an Electronic bill for the movement of goods under GST which can be generated on the E-Way Bill portal. Recently some enhancements have been made in the E-way Bill portal which has been discussed in this article. Moreover, CBIC vide its Notification No 22/2019-central tax dated April 23 2019 has notified the provisions of Rule 138E of CGST Rules, 2017 imposing certain restrictions on taking EWay bill.

As per Rule 138E of the Act, a consigner, consignee, transporter, an e-commerce operator or a courier agency that has not filed return for two consecutive months (in case of regular taxpayer) or two consecutive tax periods (two quarters in case of a composition taxpayer) shall not be allowed to furnish information in Part A of E-Way bill.

However, commissioner has been given the power to allow such furnishing of Part A of E-way bill on sufficient reason being shown to his satisfaction. Moreover, the commissioner shall not reject without giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard.

Enhancement in the E-Way bill system:
Auto calculation of route distance based on PIN code: 

E-waybill system has now enabled the automatic calculation of distance of the route based on the PIN codes of source and destination locations given by the user. User is allowed to edit the distance shown, but it will be limited to 10% more than the displayed distance. In case the source PIN and the destination PIN are same, the user can enter up to a maximum of 100 km only. If PIN entered is incorrect, the system would alert the user but he can continue entering the distance. Taxpayer can now know the distance between source and destination by selecting “PIN to PIN distance” in Search section on the EWB System home page. Search will show approximate distance between the PINs entered.

Blocking of generation of multiple E-Way Bills on one Invoice/document
Only one E-way Bill can be generated with an invoice number by the consignor, consignee or transporter.

Extension of E-Way Bill in case Consignment is in Transit: 

The taxpayer or transporter can now extend E-way Bill validity, when goods are in transit. User can login to the EWB portal and navigate to Extend Validity in EWB module by entering the corresponding EWB Number. On selection of In Transit, the address details of the transit place need to be provided by user. On selection of In Movement the system will prompt user to enter the mode and Vehicle details.

Report on EWB which are about to expire soon

This feature will be very helpful to the transporter as they can now view the list of EWB about to expire in next three days. User can see this after logging into the EWB portal and navigating through Reports in My EWB Reports.