To aid identify stuck vehicles at toll booths and detect GST fraud, the government is working on a system that will soon provide real-time reports to GST officers for those vehicles moving without e-way bills. Furthermore, tax officers will receive research reports on the detection of e-way bill errors that will help officials in the identification of circular trading cases. It will also contain information on the recycling, to help officers in the detection of evaders.
Are E-Way Bills Mandatory?
- E-way bills have been made mandatory for inter-state transportation of goods priced over Rs. 50,000 under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime since April 2018. Gold, on the other hand, is excluded.
- Businesses and transporters who use the system must produce the e-way bill if asked by a GST inspector. The government is right now making RFID for GST officers to assist them in catching tax evaders who are abusing the e-way bill scheme.
An Insight of Government’s Report
- The government stated in a report titled “E-way Bill – A Three-Year Journey” that 180 crores e-way bills were produced in three years until March 2021. Just 7 crores of these bills were confirmed by tax officers.
- 60 crores e-way bills were produced in the fiscal year 2020-21, which ended in March 2021, of which 2 crores were picked up for verification. In the fiscal year 2019-20, which ended in March 2020, 63 crores e-way bills were produced, with 3 crores being picked up by tax officers for verification.
Significance of RFID/FasTag
- As of 1 January 2021, the government has enabled RFID/FasTag into the eway billing system and a supplier should have a FasTag inside its automobile with details of the e-way bill for goods carried into the RFID by vehicles. The data fed into the system are submitted to the government portal. Revenue officials then use the details to verify the supplies made by a GST-registered individual.
- To boost tax collection, authorities have started stopping the generation of bills if a registered taxpayer has not submitted a tax return form for two months in a row. In addition, the government has made it impossible to generate several EWBs on a single invoice. If an EWB is created once with a document number, no one else can create another EWB with the same number.
- Furthermore, the e-way bills scheme now enables for analyzing data based on area codes. Based on PIN codes, the device can automatically determine the distance between the source and destination. In the future, the government will have a real-time report on vehicle movement for selected e-way bills, which will aid officers in understanding the vehicle’s trail of movement. Officials will also have entry to records on vehicles roaming without e-way bills for a certain toll booth, allowing them to intercept only those vehicles that do not have e-Way bills.
The E-way Bill scheme, which was introduced under the GST framework, has significantly simplified the logistics and transportation process. Users are expected to keep up to date with their tax filings on the GST portal as of 2020, as failure to do so may result in E-Way Bill errors. Visit Finserv MARKETS to know more about E-way bills!
