The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council Meet held on 10th March 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi had unanimously decided that electronic way or E-way Bill will be mandatory from April 1, 2018, for interstate movement across the states in the country.
However, due to lack of consensus on simplified GST filing, the current GST filing system will remain the same for the next three months. As a result, the current return filing system is extended till June 1st and the businesses will continue to file summary sales returns GSTR-3B and final sales return GSTR-1 as usual.
A group of ministers is already working out to get a simplified mechanism of return filing that checks any deception and ultimately comes up with a system which is simple and allows single return filing every month
The Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley said that after the successful implementation of interstate transportation of goods, the government will decide to phase inclusion of intra-state movement, from April 15.
For intrastate movement of goods, all the states will be divided into four different categories. Out of the four State groups, the first states to roll out intra State e-way Bill will be decided on April 7 and all the States are expected to have the e-Way system by June 1.
The Eway Bill can be checked anytime during goods movement by the GST inspector when asked. This is billed to check any anti-evasion measure which could boost tax collection by securing trade currently happening on a cash basis. So from April 1, All the transporters who are carrying goods worth Rs 50,000 or above will have to generate e-way bills.
