The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has announced that, starting from March 2024, the generation of E-way bills will require inclusion of e-invoice details and will not be permitted otherwise. This is applicable for e invoice enabled tax payers and for the transactions related to Supplies under B2B and Exports. However, EWBs for other transactions such as B2C and non-supplies will function as usual without any change.
Since October 2020, e-Invoice has been put into operation for taxpayers with an Annual Aggregate Turnover (AATO) exceeding Rs. 500 Crores. Subsequently, in a phased approach, the mandatory requirement for e-Invoice generation extends to taxpayers with AATO above Rs. 5 Crores.
Right from the outset, e-Invoice has seamlessly integrated with the e-Way bill system, facilitating the automatic generation of e-Way bills during the e-Invoice generation process. In other words, if transportation details are provided during e-Invoice generation, the e-Waybill is generated automatically. The majority of taxpayers are concurrently generating e-Invoices and e-Way bills.
Nevertheless, upon examination, it has been observed that certain eligible taxpayers for e-Invoicing are producing e-Waybills independently of linking them with e-Invoice for B2B and B2E transactions. In some instances, the invoice details entered separately in the e-Waybill and e-Invoice do not align in terms of specific parameters. Consequently, this mismatch is resulting in discrepancies in the e-Waybill and e-Invoice statements. Hence to avoid this, the new rule has been set forth.
Check and Balances
The e-Waybill generation process will be enhanced with appropriate validations for taxpayers (Suppliers) eligible for e-Invoicing. For B2B and B2E transactions (Exports), Suppliers eligible for e-Invoicing will not be permitted to directly generate e-Waybills without an accompanying e-Invoice. This restriction is applicable to e-Waybill categories such as Supply, Exports, SKD, CKD, and Lots.
However, regular e-Waybill generation for transactions involving B2C and other non-Supplies will remain unaffected. Similarly, for e-Waybills generated by transporters, a corresponding check will be enforced on the Supplier GSTIN. Other operations, including Part-B updating, transporter ID updating, etc., will continue without any modifications.
All taxpayers and transporters are urged to adjust their systems accordingly to accommodate these changes effective from March 1, 2024.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscanpremium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates
