The National Informatics Centre (NIC) developed the E-Way Bill System under the Goods and Services Tax ( GST ) regime and has come up with the GST E-Way Bill Journey of 3 Years.
Impact of Functionalities in E-Way Bill system
The system will auto calculate the distance between the source and destination, based on PIN codes. User can enter the actual distance limited to only 10% more than the auto calculated distance. This has controlled the incorrect entry of distance and thereby reduced recycling of EWBs.
If the EWB is once generated using an invoice number or document number, then none of the other parties can generate another EWB using the same invoice number. This has resulted into reduced generation of EWBs on the same invoice number. This has increased the tax compliance.
The system will auto calculate the distance between the source and destination, based on PIN codes. User can enter the actual distance limited to only 10% more than the auto calculated distance. This has resulted into controlled the incorrect entry of distance and thereby reduced recycling of EWBs.
If the EWB is once generated using an invoice number or document number, then none of the other parties can generate another EWB using the same invoice number, which has reduced generation of EWBs on the same invoice number. This has increased the tax compliance.
The transporters and taxpayers may now extend the EWB both in transit or movement, by using the form of extension of validity. This has Facilitated transporters to extend the EWBs for the consignments which have been kept in go-downs for transshipment.
Transporters and Taxpayers can now view their EWBs which are about to expire in a period of 4 days. This helped in managing consignments and EWBs in a more systematic way.
EWB is now integrated with Vahan system. The vehicle numbers entered in EWB system will now be verified for its existence/correctness in Vahan database. The system alerts the user on entry of incorrect vehicle numbers. This has reduced the entry of incorrect vehicle numbers and thereby reduced fraudulent transactions.
If the GST registered taxpayer has not filed Return 3B for the last two successive months in GST common portal, then the GSTIN is blocked for further EWB generation. This has resulted into improved tax compliance at the GST Common portal.
The transporters registered in multiple states can now obtain a common enrolment number for moving the goods, which has helped the transporters to update part-B details during the transshipment which happens when goods move across multiple states.
E-Way Bill is now integrated with the e-Invoicing system. That is with a single request , the E-Way Bill is generated by auto populating the invoice details in Part-A.
Significance of E-Way Bill during Covid-19 Lockdown
During the Covid-19 lockdown the E-Waybill system was one of the vital sources of information of economic activities in the country. The system provided a number of reports for monitoring the essential commodities that moved across the nation. The Covid-19 medical supplies report gave important insights on the type, value and the quantity of the medical items.
Future Proposals
Firstly, the Authority proposes a real time report on Vehicle movement for selected E-Way Bill which will help the officer in knowing the trail of movement by the vehicle.
Secondly, real-time report on vehicles moving without e- Waybills for a selected toll plaza which will help the officer in intercepting only those vehicles which are not having e-waybills.
Thirdly, analysis reports on identifying EWB with no movement of goods which will help the officer in identifying cases of bill trading and circular trading.
Fourthly, analysis reports on the recycling of EWB for tax evasion-prone commodities will help the officer in identifying tax-evading taxpayers.
