GST: Govt plans to integrate FASTag in E-Way Bills

E-Way Bills - Gst - CBIC - Taxscan

To ensure faster movement of goods and to boost transportation facilities, the Goods and Services Tax ( GST ) department is planning to integrate e-way bill with NHAI’s FASTag mechanism and DMICDC’s Logistics Data Bank (LDB) services.

Reportedly, the proposal will improve operational efficiencies across the country’s logistic landscape. Currently, the lack of harmonisation under the ‘track and trace’ mechanism in terms of sharing information among different agencies is affecting the ease of doing business in the country. Besides, it is also impacting the logistic costs of the companies.

The proposal will also help in preventing goods and services tax (GST) evasion by unscrupulous traders who take advantage of the loopholes in the supply chain, an official told PTI.

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 through prior online registration of the consignment. From April 1, the government had implemented the electronic way or e-way bill system for moving goods from one state to another. The same for intra or within the state movement has been rolled out from April 15.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has put in place the FASTag system for collection of toll electronically on national highways. FASTag also offers non-stop movement of vehicles through toll plazas.

Integration of e-way bill with FASTag will help revenue authorities track the movement of vehicles and ensure that they are travelling to the same destination as the transporter or the trader had specified while generating the e-way bill. It will also help the suppliers locate the goods through the e-way bill system. Transporters, too, would be able to track their vehicles through SMS alerts that would be generated at each toll plaza.

Similarly, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor’s (DMIC’s) container tracking services, also called LDB programme, would be integrated with the e-way bill to improve the logistics ecosystem.

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