GST Council clears e-way bill mechanism for movement of goods

The all-powerful GST Council has on Saturday approved mandatory compliance of e-way bill for intra-state movement of goods from June 1, 2018, sources said.

The Council has fixed February 1 as the compliance date for inter-state movement of goods, sources in the panel added.

The e-way bill facility bill be available for trial run from January 15.

These decisions were taken at the 24^th meeting of the GST Council headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

An e-way bill is required for movement of goods worth more than Rs 50,000. When goods are transported for less than 10 km within a state, the supplier or the transporter need not furnish details on the GST portal.

The e-way bill mechanism has been introduced in the GST regime to plug tax evasion loopholes. Tax evasion was one of the reasons cited by the government for the fall in revenue collection in October.

The GST revenue for October stood at Rs 83,346 crore, the lowest since the implementation of GST from July 1.

It was significantly lower than the September figure of Rs 95,131 crore.