New Delhi : The provision, called the e-way bill, would be implemented after infrastructure for smooth generation of registration and its verification through hand-held devices with tax officials is ready. The information technology platform for the e-way bill system is being developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) along with GST-Network, the company which has developed the IT for the new indirect tax regime. As per the provision, GSTN would generate e-way bills that will be valid for 1-20 days, depending on distance to be travelled, one day for 100 km, 3 days (100 to less than 300 km), 5 days (300-less than 500 km) and 10 days (500-less than 1,000 km). Although the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been rolled out from July 1, a centralised e-way bill could not be implemented as the rules and forms were not ready. Originally, GSTN was to develop the e-way bill platform, but last month only the GST Council decided to rope in NIC to develop it since it was felt that in the initial days of GST roll out, GSTN would be busy with other works like solving issues like registration and invoice generation. The draft e-way bill rules, which was made public in April, provide that the person in-charge of conveyance will be required to carry the invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, and a copy of the e-way bill or the e-way bill number, either physically or mapped to a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) embedded on to the conveyance. The rules authorise the tax commissioner or an officer empowered by him on his behalf to intercept any conveyance to verify the e-way bill or the number in physical form for all inter-state movement of goods.The officer will be required to submit a summary report of every inspection of goods in transit within 24 hours and the final report within three days of inspection. |