India GST e-way bill launch deferred

India has postponed its mandatory e-way bill implementation, and extended the trail process due to technical issues associated with the huge volume of submissions at the 1 February launch.

E-way bills are online submissions required to provide details of any cross-state delivery of goods within India. There are 29 states in India. They are required to be filed prior to the start of the journey to obtain an electronic receipt. There is a threshold of INR 50,000. The e-way bills provide details of the goods being shipped, and are later reconciled to the sellers and purchasers GST return to ensure full and proper recording of any taxes due on the delivery.

E-way bills are seen as a fundamental anti-tax fraud pillar of the new GST regime, introduced on 1 July 2017. The government has already reported a sharp decline in the consumption tax revenues in recent months, and had brought forward the mandatory electronic cross-border e-way bills forward to 1 February.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs will provide a new date for the compulsory completion of the submissions at a later time.

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