A snag in the e-invoicing system had led to problems in generating e-way bill for transporters who are not registered under GST, since the past few days. However, it has been duly acknowledged and rectified and the changes will be rolled out over the weekend, shared Abhishek Gupta, Joint Secretary, All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA).
Had the problem not been rectified, it would have compelled transporters to get GST registered in order to generate the bill. However, the changes are in process and by Monday, it will be duly resolved.
E-invoicing had commenced from 1st October as a testing phase. It earlier applicable from the 1st of October for 500cr and above customers. The 1st to 31st October time period has been set as the Testing Phase, while from 1st November, it was scheduled to go live.
E-invoicing is connected to the E-way bill. A customer who can generate the e-invoice from the system can also access the eway bill directly from the system itself.
“For example, if any FMCG company is using SAP as a software; if it is through SAP that they are generating the e-invoice, then it is through SAP that they will also get the e-way bill”, explained Mr Gupta.
While talking about the snag that hit the system, he added, “So in that particular process ,there was an error showing up due to which, the e-way bill was not generating for those transporters who are not registered. This glitch came to our knowledge on 4th October when members approached AITWA and we actively took it up with the GST Network and the NIC, the backbone of the GST network and appraised them of the issue”.
“Last night they reverted to us and that they have addressed the issue and they are rolling out the changes over the weekend, and by Monday it will be resolved hopefully”, Mr Gupta assured.
“We have a written confirmation from the GST Network & NIC that the problem has been identified and resolved but all that needs to be done is for it to be deployed, which should be done by Monday.”
~Abhishek Gupta, Joint Secy, All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA)
Last month ,E-way bills, or electronic permits, for transportation of goods, witnessed record growth in addition to an increase in electronic bills for transporting goods nationwide as well as higher goods and services tax (GST) receipts collections.
In September, over 57.4 million e-way bills were generated, nearly matching the 57.1 million e-way bills in February, prior to the lockdown, as per data available with GST Network, which offers technology support for administering GST.
E-way bills are a necessity for transporting goods of over INR 50,000 value both for intra- and inter-state supply. This enables officials to keep a tab on transactions without physical interference in the movement of goods.
Meanwhile, Wednesday saw a sudden spike in e-way bill generation. “On 30th September, almost 26.19 lakh e-way bills were generated which is the highest ever count so far in a single day. This is the third day this year when e-way bills have been generated to mark a record count. Before this, on 29 February, 25.19 lakh e-way bills were generated, while on 31 January, around 24.74 lakh e-way bills were generated,” Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey had earlier commented.
The number of e-way bills issued in September was 9.3% more than the year-earlier.
According to Mr Pandey, said some major industrial states have shown “very positive” growth percentage in GST collections, an indication of the economic recovery being on track.
All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) was established in the year 2000 as a society registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860 for the welfare of India’s Road Transport Fraternity and to act as its mouthpiece in the matters related to country’s Road Transport Industry.
