To help the logistics industry comply with e-way bill requirements with ease, the Finance Ministry has announced new rules for transporters running businesses in multiple States.
The Central Goods and Services Tax (Sixth Amendment) Rules, 2018, which came into effect on June 19, prescribes: “A transporter who is registered in more than one State or Union Territory having the same Permanent Account Number, may apply for a unique common enrolment number by submitting the details in FORM GST ENR-02 using any one of his Goods and Services Tax Identification Numbers, and upon validation of the details furnished, a unique common enrolment number shall be generated and communicated to the said transporter.”
But it comes with a caveat that if the transporter has obtained a unique common enrolment number (UEN), he will not be eligible to use any of the GSTINs.
Transporters are required to submit the final report after the e-way bill is generated.
The report indicates that tax-paid goods have been delivered, and now can be used for verification in the tax assessment of buyers. Under the new rules, transporters will be given extended time not exceeding three days for recording of the final report
Ease of compliance
Generation of e-way bills by a transporter registered in multiple States was seen as an arduous task, as the transporter was required to login with the respective GSTINs in various States to generate the bills.
With the latest amendment, transporters can use the UEN for their pan-India activities.
Ramaratnam Muralidharan, Senior Director at Deloitte India, said the amendment will lead to considerable saving of effort and time, as transporters can generate e-way bills for customers across India through a central team, doing away with multiple registrations at the e-way bill portal.
Single login
Also, “the transporter would now be able to effectively manage other e-way bill compliances such as assignment of e-way bills to other transporters, uploading details of detention of vehicles, etc, under a single login ID at the portal,” Muralidharan said, adding that this will ease GST compliance for the logistic industry.