Ahead of the rollout of the E-way bill from April 1, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Wednesday asked businesses and transporters to get ready for it and enrol for the new system. At present, just 11 lakh businesses have enrolled for it.

“But I am not too sure whether traders, dealers and transporters are still ready. I would like to appeal to them to register themselves on the E-way bill portal...they should not then tell us that we didn’t inform them,” he said at the Foundation Day of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN).

The E-way bill for intra-State movement will be implemented after two weeks.

“We will announce the schedule at least three days in advance, but not immediately because we want to observe how the E-way bill portal functions for inter-State movement of goods” Adhia said. GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey expressed confidence that the E-way bill will role out smoothly this time.

“Whenever you roll out such a system, there could be issues in the initial phases. So based on our experience, this time around extensive testing has been done. Assurance has been given by NIC that this time the system should work,” he said.

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian too came out in support of the GSTN and said that though there were technical glitches, the system was able to respond to it.

He also called for a clear protocol for sharing of GST data with government departments as it would improve compilation of GDP estimates and also give a better picture of the economy.

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