The Tamil Nadu Government has issued the instructions regarding Levy of penalty for minor defects in E-Way Bill not intended for GST Evasion.
“This circular has been issued at the nascent stage of e-way bill system development which has not addressed multiple places of delivery, multimodal shipment and over dimensional cargo etc,” the government in the circular said.
“Where the person in charge of conveyance carrying consignment of goods carries the documents prescribed under rule 138A or rule 55A, (i.e. e-way bill has been generated and invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, as the case may be), but the case involves minor defects not intended for evasion of tax in the particular transaction and the documents otherwise manifestly show sufferance of tax in that transaction, a penalty of up to Rs.5000 per Act shall be levied. The following are examples in this context,” the Tamil Nadu government said.
As per Section 68 of the TNGST Act, 2017, the Government may require the person in charge of a conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding such amount as may be specified to carry with him such documents and such devices as may be prescribed.
As per Section-2(41) “document” includes written or printed record of any sort and electronic record as defined in clause (t) of section 2 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
As per 2(t) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, electronic record means data, record or data generated, image or sound stored, received or sent in an electronic form or microfilm or computer generated microfiche.
As per Section-145(1)(d) of the TNGST Act, 2017 any information stored electronically in any device or media, including any hard copies made of such information shall be deemed to be a document for the purpose of this Act and the rules made thereunder and shall be admissible in any proceedings thereunder, without further proof or production of the original, as evidence of any contents of the original or of any fact stated therein of which direct evidence would be admissible.
The government has clarified that the person in-charge of a conveyance has to carry an E-way bill and Invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, either in physical or electronic form. The person in-charge of a conveyance, on demand of the Roving Squad Officer, shall produce; e-way bill, either physically or electronically, or the e-way bill number alone, to substantiate that, the e-way bill was generated prior to commencement of movement of goods. Invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, as the case may be, either physically or electronically. In case of production of invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, electronically, it may be shown in e- mail, or in whatsapp or such other applications, in mobile phone or such other electronic devices, to clearly indicate that, the person in charge of the conveyance has received the document, prior to the commencement of movement of goods, with date and time of the document.
The Roving squad officers, shall not insist on physical copy of these documents, if the person in-charge of a conveyance prefers to show them electronically.
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