Draft GST rules: Business entities have some serious concerns

A goods supplier with annual turnover under Rs 20 lakh and not registered under the goods and services tax (GST) network might escape the need for prior online registration and Electronic Way (e-way) Bill for any consignment over Rs 50,000, with the onus falling on the registered recipient in that case.

According to the draft e-way rules, where goods and services go from an unregistered supplier to a recipient who is registered, the movement will be considered to be ‘caused by recipient if recipient is known at the time of commencement of movement of goods.’

The GST exemption limit is Rs 20 lakh annual turnover in all states except those of the Northeast, where the limit is Rs 10 lakh. Those in the exemption bracket will not need to register under the GST network, unless they want to avail of input tax credit.

By the draft rules, moving goods worth more than Rs 50,000 under GST will require prior online registration of the consignment and securing of an e-way bill, to check tax evasion by allowing officials to inspect consignments anytime during the transit.

“The only relief for the industry is the fact that the e-way bills need to be generated either by the supplier or the transporter, not the customer, reducing the dependency for obtaining this from customers,” say consultants PwC India.

The draft has been put in the public domain for comments by April 21. Businesses are expected to raise some concerns. These include enhancing the threshold from Rs 50,000 for generation of e-way bills, doing away with the need for intra-state supplies and physical verification of transport.

There are also concerns on generation of e-way bills for cases such as free of cost supplies, supply of non-GST goods, movement for import or export up to ports and movement for job-work. Suppliers will also have an option to issue e-way bills even if the value of goods involved in movement is less than Rs 50,000.

The rules authorise the tax commissioner or an officer empowered on the former’s behalf to intercept any conveyance to verify the e-way bill or number in physical form, for all inter-state and intra-state movement of goods. When the goods are handed over to a transporter, the supplier will also need to furnish the details of transporter in the prescribed form and the transporter will be required to generate the e-way bill on the common portal.

The e-way bills generated by the GST Network will be valid for one to 15 days, depending on distance to be travelled — one day being for 100 kilometres and 15 days for more than 1,000 km transit. 

Upon generation of the e-way bill on the common portal, a unique e-way bill number (EBN) shall be made available to the supplier, the recipient and the transporter on the common portal. The transporter or 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 embedded on to the conveyance.