Tasting success in the first phase of the roll out of the E-Way Bill under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Karnataka, tax authorities are likely to expand it to more States this month.
“The first phase of the pilot project of the E-Way Bill has been very good. The next phase will start this month and we expect four to five more States to join,” said a senior government official. Rajasthan and many North-Eastern States have shown an interest in joining and a formal decision is expected soon.
Despite reservations, the pilot project is understood to have seen only a few glitches. As many as 23.88 lakh E-Way Bills were generated in Karnataka in the first month. Of this, only 105 were verified and just 187 were rejected.
“This shows that only a few vehicles were stopped for physical verification. As envisaged the vast majority of cargo traffic had a seamless movement,” said the official.
Under GST, movement of goods worth over ₹50,000 beyond 10 km require prior registration and generation of an E-Way Bill through the GST Network to track inter-State and intra-State movement of goods.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is implementing the project, based on a similar project it had carried out earlier in Karnataka.
Though the GST was rolled out from July 1, the implementation of E-Way Bill has been delayed and is now expected after March 31, 2018.
More States will be brought into the scheme over the next few months to ensure that the transition is gradual and smooth with enough time for testing of the software and systems. With the removal of intra-State barriers and physical check posts under GST and introduction of the E-Way Bill, the government is hopeful that it will improve the efficiency of the logistics sector, despite industry concerns over harassment.