Intra-State E-Way Bill Rollout From April 15

E-way bills will be needed for moving goods within a state from April 15 in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

With the rollout in the five states in the first phase, it's expected that the “trade and industry will be further facilitated insofar as the transport of goods is concerned”, a Finance Ministry statement said. That would eventually pave the way for a nationwide single e-way bill system, it said.

The government launched the electronic way bills for transporting goods worth over Rs 50,000 between states from April 1. The Goods and Services Tax council last month decided to first go ahead with inter-state bills and then implement them for intra-state trade in phases. That's after the first attempt at a nationwide rollout failed due to overloading of the e-way bill portal. Since April 1, more than 63 lakh inter-state bills were generated till yesterday.

Stability in the system for generation of e-way bills for inter-state movement of goods has led to implementation of intra-state e-way bill mechanism from April 15 in phases, Abhishek Jain, partner at EY India, told BloombergQuint. This would also ensure that there is no load at the e-way bill portal at once, he said.

Also Read: More Than 1.7 Lakh E-Way Bills Generated On First Day of Rollout

So far, Karnataka is the only state to have rolled out e-way bills for moving goods within the state from April 1. The Finance Ministry appealed to transporters to register on the e-way bill portal for a smooth rollout of the mechanism for intra-state trade.

Touted as an anti-evasion measure to boost tax collections, e-way bills were first introduced on Feb. 1. But its implementation was put on hold after the system developed glitches. As several states also started generating intra-state bills on the portal, the system had developed a snag.

Also Read: BQExplains: What Are E-Way Bills And How Do They Work?