e-Way Bills – A strictly mandated document for goods Transportation. As given in Rule 138 of CGST Rules, 2017, e-Way Bills are mandatory documents to be carried while moving Goods having value Rs. 50,000 or more. e-Way Bills are mandatory for inter-state, intra-state, SEZ & import-export movements.
E Way Bill generation must be done on the e-Way Bill Portal or site-to-site integration using APIs before the movement of goods begins. The e-Way Bill is divided into two parts, Part-A & Part-B, both are to be furnished mandatorily.
Part-A of the e-Way Bill has all the details related to the transaction & the goods such as GSTIN of the receiver, HSN, Goods Value, Item details, Invoice/Challan number & place of delivery.
Part-B of the Electronic-Way Bill contains the transporter details such as Transporter ID & Vehicle number. An e-Way Bill is considered invalid or incomplete if any one of these two parts is missing.
e-Way Bill Generation- Who, When & How
The e-Way Bill can be generated by any person registered on the GST Portal or enrolled on the e-Way Bill Portal as a transporter. This means that all three, the Consigner, the Consignee & the transporter can generate an e-Way Bill, on behalf of the other.
Mainly the owner of the Goods or the Supplier generates the e-Way Bill before the movement of the shipment starts. But in case the Supplier is an unregistered person, then the Receiver of the Goods must generate the e-Way Bill on his behalf.
In yet another case, where both the Supplier & the Receiver fail to generate the e-Way Bill, the responsibility moves on the Transporter.
Ideally, the e-Way Bill must be generated before the movement of the Goods begins. e-Way Bill must be mandatorily generated for all the movements of Goods worth Rs. 50,000 & above.
The Government has not allowed any compensation from the e-Way Bill to any type of movement. The e-Way Bill rule equally applies to Inter-state, Intra-state, SEZ & Import/Export movements of goods.
A user can generate the e-Way Bill from either the official e-Way Bill Portal or through APIs & site-to-site integration.
Following are the steps to generate e-Way Bills from the e-Way Bill Portal-
- Log into the e-Way Bill Portal using your User Id & Password
- Under e-Way Bill, click on ‘Generate New’
- Fill in all the mandatory fields with correct details
- Furnish the Item Details- HSN, Product Name, Description, etc.
- Fill in the Transporter details- Mode, Transporter Name, ID, Transporter Document No. & Vehicle Number.
- Verify if you have entered all the details correctly, then click on ‘Submit’
- If there are no errors the e-Way Bill shall be generated & can be downloaded as a JSON or PDF File.
- The e-Way Bill can also be printed from the Portal.
e Way Bill Non-Compliance : Critical Consequences for Businesses
Complying with the e-Way Bill system is highly important for Businesses. Since e-Way Bills are mandatory documents, the Government has made strict arrangements to ensure that Businesses comply with the same sincerely.
Vehicles are intercepted at any point in their journey. If a Vehicle is found eligible & yet not carrying an e-Way Bill, then a penalty of Rs. 10,000 is levied on the Owner of the goods. If not the Penalty then the Owner must pay the amount of tax sought to be evaded.
In suspicious cases, for say, if the owner does not show up for their goods, then the goods can also be detained, seized & even confiscated in extreme cases.
This is a strict & harsh Rule for Businesses. The non-compliance can lead the Businesses towards monetary losses in the form of Penalties & Non-monetary losses in the form of loss of goods.
apart from actual losses, the non-compliance with the e-Way Bill system can also bring the businesses to a momentary halt, since no smooth transaction of Goods in possible without an e-Way Bill.
Ultimately such Taxpayers & Businesses that tamper with the rule too often are noticed by the Tax Officials & can attract Audits & Scrutinies.
Hence it becomes important for Businesses to Comply Better with the e-Way Bill rule, for the smooth & frictionless running of Businesses.
The Possible Reasons why Accountants might find e-Way Bills difficult to handle
Managing the e-Way Bills especially its generation process can be an ache for accountants & anyone who deals with them. Generation process alone is highly time-consuming & lengthy.
The most common problems faced by Accountants while dealing with e-Way Bills are listed below-
- JSON Files- To create an e-Way Bill, a user has to convert their Invoices manually into JSON format & upload that File in the e-Way Bill portal. This consumes time.
- Bulk Generation- Even to Bulk generate the e-Way Bills the user has to feed the Invoice related & other information in a JSON File in the e-Way Bill Portal, which is tedious & takes longer.
- Manual Data Entry- The user can also opt for manually feeding the data to the e-Way Bill portal instead of using the JSON File. This is again time-taking.
- Manual data entry errors- Because the process is manual it is no surprise that data entry errors may arise.
- Multiple visits to the e-Way Bill Portal- The user is caught in the constant to & fro between the Portal & the ERP with the data or JSON Files.
- Maintenance for further use- Since the idea of Matching the e-Way Bill & GSTR-1 data has been introduced it has become an important task for the Accountants to maintain the e-Way Bills manually for further uses.
- e-Way Bill Numbers- Since the user has to manually enter the e-Way Bill numbers against Invoices with specified Invoice Numbers, there is a high risk of confusion & errors as the e-Way Bills are also canceled & generated fresh.
- Expiry of e-Way Bills- e-Way Bills tend to get expired after a period, the user must then extend it’s validity, within 4 hours of expiration. This can be a problem for the user as expired e-Way Bills shall be considered invalid.
- Errors in e-Way Bills- If there are any errors in the e-Way Bills, it cannot be changed or rectified, the only option left is to cancel that e-Way Bill & create a New e-Way Bill.
Here’s an Advanced & Potential solution for all your e-Way Bill complication
Managing & Generating e-Way Bills can be a critical task for accountants & businesses. Mistakes can lead to penalties & loss of goods, also, if the user wishes for everything to be accurate, then they must invest an ample amount of time & bandwidth.
The essence here is to save both, if a task can be done in less time with a lower bandwidth it is a bonus for the Business. APIs & GSPS can help Businesses in various ways as APIs enable site-to-site integrations
One such API provider is GSTHero. GSTHero is a Government Authorized GST Suvidha Provider, that provides high-end solutions to GST Related complexities.
GSTHero’s e-Way Bill Solutions include- ERP Plug-ins & Integration.
It links the user’s ERP to the e-Way Bill Portal, so the user can skip most of the steps of the tedious process & can perform the e-Way Bill operations from within the ERPs.
Here’s what GSTHero offers as a solution-
- Generate, Consolidate, Edit, Cancel & Print e-Way Bills in 1 click form the ERP.
- GSTHero Site-to-site Integration & plug-ins, merge the ERPs to the e-Way Bill Portal, so all the e-Way Bill operations can be performed from within the ERP itself. No need for constant juggling between the ERP & the Portal.
- Since ERPs already have the invoice data, the user need not upload the data again.
- Saves time & Manpower.
- Bulk Generate e-Way Bills in fewer steps without using JSON File.
- Invoice data shall be automatically fed for creating e-Way Bills. Meaning, no manual data entry or copying data from Invoices.
- Ruling out of manual entry errors since the process is automated
- No need to convert invoice data in JSON format & upload it. hence eliminating JSON Files completely.
- GSTHero is ISO Certified, is safe & ensures maximum data security.
- GSTHero’s dedicated Support Team delivers prompt support to the users, & provides excellent after-sales support & training, guaranteeing a smooth user experience.
About the Author– GSTHero- Making Life Simple! GSTHero is the best GST filing, E-Way Bill Generation & E-Invoicing Software in India. GSTHero is a government authorized GST Suvidha Provider. Both Businesses and Tax Practitioners can file GSTR 1, GSTR 3B, GSTR 9 and GSTR 9C with all supporting reports. 1 Click Auto Reconciliation & report-matching feature helps you in claiming up to 100% ITC and finds your GST Defaulting Suppliers. GSTR2A vs GSTR-3B, GSTR-1 vs GSTR-3B, ‘GSTR-1, GSTR-2A & GSTR-3B’ annual report matching is also provided by GSTHero.
GSTHero ERP Plugins provide 1 Click E-Way Bill & E-Invoice, Generation, Operation & Printing from your own ERP itself like Tally, SAP, Marg, Busy, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle & others with high data security.
