With hundreds of trucks stranded across the country since March 15 when states started to lock their borders down culminating into a national lockdown announced by the Centre, transporters have raised concerns over potential penalties arising from expired e-way bills. Having been stuck for the last two weeks, truckers have e-way bills for goods in transit or in godowns, which were getting expired and could not be renewed on due dates. According to notified e-way bill rules, every registered supplier requires prior online registration on the e-way bill portal for the movement of these goods. The rules also specify that the permits for convention cargo (other than over-dimensional carve) are valid for one day for the movement of goods for 100 km, and in the same proportion for following days. Tax officials have the power to scrutinise the e-way bill at any point during transit to check tax evasion. In general, validity of the e-way bill cannot be extended but a commissioner may extend the validity period only through issuing notification for certain categories of goods. If goods are moved without generating a valid e-way bill, a fine of Rs 10,000 or amount of tax sought to be evaded, whichever is higher, may be imposed by tax authorities. In such a situation, goods, and the vehicle transporting them, can be detained or seized. Over the last one week, there have been reports from numerous state check points of trucks laden with cargo being held up at various points. On their part, government officials said no such issue about problems in electronic way bill, or e-way bill, has been raised by states’ commercial tax authorities as of now, though they acknowledge if the e-way bills expire then regenerating them might be an issue for the transporter. “An e-way bill can be regenerated by the transporter before expiry, but yes, a problem may arise if the e-way bill has expired since the system won’t allow regeneration linked to the same invoice,” a government official explained. In a petition to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Wednesday, a group of truckers pointed out that the e-way bills could not be extended by the transporters on account of closure of offices, godowns and unavailability of staff. “We request you to issue immediate directions/guidelines to GST Commissioners (all States/UTs) for considering this unfolding situation empathetically and allow the vehicles in transit and goods not delivered to be exempted from any scrutiny or penal provisions to reach their destination smoothly, even if e-way bill is expired,” Kultaran Singh Atwal, President, All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), wrote in the letter. An electronic way bill or ‘e-way bill’ system offers the technological framework to track intra-state as well as inter-state movements of goods of value exceeding Rs 50,000, for sales beyond 10 km in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Speaking to The Indian Express, AIMTC’s Secretary General Naveen Gupta said while currently there were no flying squads on ground that reprimand truckers for expired e-way bills, there was a fear that once the lockdown is over, transporters may be penalised by taxmen. “There are no clear guidelines or SOPs currently for tax officials to deal with such a situation,” he added. Here’s a quick Coronavirus guide from Express Explained to keep you updated: What can cause a COVID-19 patient to relapse after recovery? | COVID-19 lockdown has cleaned up the air, but this may not be good news. Here’s why | Can alternative medicine work against the coronavirus? | A five-minute test for COVID-19 has been readied, India may get it too | How India is building up defence during lockdown | Why only a fraction of those with coronavirus suffer acutely | How do healthcare workers protect themselves from getting infected? | What does it take to set up isolation wards?
