Intra-state e-way bill rolled out in 5 states; not much increase seen in bills on portal, says official

New Delhi: E-way bill requirement for intra-state movement of goods have been rolled out in 5 states, including Gujarat and Kerala, from Sunday.

The electronic e-way bill for inter-state movement of goods valued over Rs 50,000 was rolled out on 1 April. The GST council had decided on a staggered roll out of intra-state e-way bill starting with 5 states – Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala. From midnight till 5 pm Sunday, about 2.4 lakh e-way bill (both inter state and intra-state) was generated on the portal, an official said.

The official said that there has not been much increase in the generation of e-way bill on Sunday on account of intra-state rollout. On the day of inter-state rollout of e-way bill on 1 April, about 2.89 lakh such bills were generated in 24 hours.

The official said one reason for not much increase in the number could be because Gujarat has mandated e-way bill for intra-state movement for only 19 items. These items include edible oil, oil cakes, ceramic tiles, iron and steel, processed tobacco, gutkha, cigarette, cement, timber products, tea, marble and granite.

“Gujarat State hereby notifies that no E-Way Bill is required to be generated for intra-city movement as well as intra-state movement of all goods within whole of the territory of the State except for intra-state movement… of 19 goods of consignment value exceeding Rs 50,000,” said the notification of the Gujarat State Tax commissioner.

Since the roll out of e-way bill for inter-state movement of goods from 1 April, more than 91 lakh such bills have been generated till Sunday. Karnataka is the only state which had rolled out e-way bill system for intra-state movement of goods from 1 April.

Touted as an anti-evasion measure and would help boost tax collections by clamping down on trade that currently happens on cash basis, the e-way bill provision of the goods and services tax (GST) was first introduced on 1 February. However, its implementation was put on hold after the system developed glitches in generating permits. With several states also starting to generate intra-state e-way bills on the portal, the system developed a snag.

Since then, the platform has been made more robust so that it can handle load of as many as 75 lakh inter-state e-way bills daily without any glitch.