GST: Maharashtra to impose Meager Penalty for Minor Discrepancies in E-Way Bill [Read Circular]

The Trade Circular issued in the light of receiving various representations regarding the imposition of penalty in the case of minor discrepancies in the E-Way Bill under the current GST regime.

The circular required that the person in charge of a conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding Rs. 50,000/-should carry a copy of documents viz., invoice/bill of supply/delivery challan/bill of entry and a valid e-way bill in physical or electronic form for verification, in the failure of which, provisions of section 129 and section 130 of the MGST Act can be invoked.

It is further clarified that in case a consignment of goods is accompanied by an invoice or any other specified document and not an e-way bill, proceedings under section 129 of the MGST Act may be initiated.

Further, in case a consignment of goods is accompanied with an invoice or any other specified document and also an e-way bill, proceedings under section 129 of the MGST Act may not be initiated, inter alia, in the following situations:

1. Spelling mistakes in the name of the consignor or the consignee but the GSTIN, wherever applicable, is correct;
2. Error in the pin-code but the address of the consignor and the consignee mentioned is correct, subject to the condition that the error in the PIN code should not have the effect of increasing the validity period of the e-way bill;
3. Error in the address of the consignee to the extent that the locality and other details of the consignee are correct
4. Error in one or two digits of the document number mentioned in the e-way bill;
5. Error in 4 or 6 digit level of HSN where the first 2 digits of HSN are correct and the rate of tax mentioned is correct;
6. Error in one or two digits/characters of the vehicle number.

The circular stated that penalty of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 under the MGST Act and the respective State GST Act should be imposed in case of the above errors.

“A record of all such consignments where proceedings under section 129 of the MGST Act have not been invoked in view of the situations listed in paragraph 5 above shall be sent by the proper officer to his controlling officer on a weekly basis,” it said.