E-way bill or Electronic-way bill is a document introduced under the GST regime that needs to be generated before transporting or shipping goods worth more than Rs 50,000 within state or inter-state.
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It is usually a unique bill number generated for the specific consignment involving the movement of goods.
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The physical copy of e-way bill must be present with the transporter or the person in charge of the conveyance and should include information such as goods, recipient, consignor and transporter. The e-way bill was rolled out nationwide on 1st April 2018.
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The e-way bill GST provisions had primarily targeted a single national level e-way bill, which could be used by suppliers and transporters all across the country.
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Till such time as this national e-way bill was ready, the States were authorised to continue their own separate e-way bill systems. However, the GST Council received several representations from the trade and transporter communities, stating that this was causing an unnecessary bottleneck to the inter-State movement of goods, prompting the need for an earlier implementation of the e-way bill.
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As a result, the GST Council, reviewed the readiness of the hardware and software required for the nationwide rollout of e-way bill, and announced the renewed date, post discussions with all the states.
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Purpose of e-way bill
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E-way bill is a mechanism to ensure that goods being transported comply with the GST Law and is a tool to track movement of goods and check tax evasion.
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