5 E way Bill Changes from 16th November 2018

On the 12^th of November 2018, certain enhancements to the e-way bill process were proposed by the National Informatics Centre. These changes, which seek to improve the e-way bill experience for businesses and transporters alike, are to go live from 16^th November, 2018. Let’s go through these 5 e way bill changes one by one, to understand how they will impact you and your business:

Checking for duplicate e-way bills based on same invoice number

Earlier, the e-way bill system was not equipped to check for duplicates based on the invoice number. Thus, if multiple e-way bills were generated against the same invoice number, either by intention or accident, the system was allowing that to happen, resulting in problems. But as per the e way bill changes from 16th November 2018, the system will not allow the consignor or the supplier to generate duplicate e-way bills. The system will check for duplicates based on the consignor’s GSTIN, document type and document number. Thus, if one e-way bill has already been generated against one invoice, no additional e-way bills against the same invoice will be allowed. The same will hold true for transporters and consignees as well – they too will not be allowed to raise e-way bills, if the e-way bill has already been generated by the consignor against a particular invoice. Not just that, if the transporter or consignee has generated one e-way bill against the consignor’s invoice, and any other party tries to generate the e-way bill, the system will immediately alert the user that one e-way bill is already present against that invoice.

Options for CKD, SKD and Lots

As per the latest e way bill changes, the options for “CKD” (Completely Knocked Down), “SKD” (Semi Knocked Down) and “Lots” for the “Supply Type” field will come in to play, which is particularly useful, whenever big consignments are broken down and moved in batches. The same also applies for export and import consignments, where a single consignment may be too big to be moved from supplier to recipient.

Handling Addresses for Export & Import Consignments

For export consignments:

• “Bill To” party will be “URP” (Unregistered Person) or GSTIN of SEZ unit with “State” as “Other Country”
• Shipping Address and PIN Code will be of the location (airport / shipping yard / border check post) from where the consignment is moving out from the country

For import consignments:

• “Bill From” party will be “URP” (Unregistered Person) or GSTIN of SEZ unit with “State” as “Other Country”
• Dispatching Address and PIN Code will be of the location (airport / shipping yard / border check post) from where the consignment is entering the country

Handling Bill to – Ship to Transactions

From 16^th November 2018, the e-way bill portal will be fully equipped to handle “Bill To – Ship To” transactions. Such transactions are primarily of 4 types, depending upon the number of parties involved in the billing and movement of goods. The types are as follows:

• Type 1 – Regular: This is a regular or normal transaction, where billing and movement of goods is happening directly between two parties – consignor and consignee.
• Type 2 – Bill To – Ship To: In this type of transaction, three parties are involved. Billing takes places between consignor and consignee, but the goods move from consignor to the third party as per the request of the consignee.
• Type 3 – Bill From – Dispatch From: In this type of transaction also, three parties are involved. Billing takes places between consignor and consignee, but the goods are moved by the consignor from the third party to the consignee.
• Type 4 – Combination of both: This is the combination of Type 2 and Type 3 and involves a total of four parties. Billing takes places between consignor and consignee, but the goods are moved by the consignor from the third party to the fourth party, as per the consignee’s request.

E way Bill changes in Bulk Generation Tool

Amongst other e way bill changes, certain new columns have been added in the Bulk Generation Tool facility of the portal. More information on the same will be made available on 16^th November 2018, and we promise to share the same with you in the next few days.