GST e-way bill mandatory from today

The GST e-way bill for moving goods across states has been rolled out from today, the day when the finance minister has also presented the Union Budget for the year 2018. It is considered to be a very crucial policy to help prevent tax evasion under GST (goods and services tax).

As per the new rule, the GST e-way bill, which is an electronic document for tracking the movement of goods, will be mandatory for all types of goods moving across states, and will be in effect from February 1.

GSTN (Goods and Services Tax Network) has already completed a 14-day trial which started on January 17. In the trial period, 28.4 lakhs e-way bills have already been generated. GSTN estimates that a number of around 7,00,000 – 8,00,000 GST e-way bills will be issued on a daily basis across the country.

“We rolled out the e-way bill system for all states from 17 January. Given the experience so far of the last two weeks, we are optimistic that the rollout will be smooth” said Prakash Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, GSTN.

However, the e-way bill is expected to trigger another economic disruption to a nation which has just come over the economic effects of the GST and demonetisation.