E-way bill rollout successful; says government

The Centre on Monday said the re-introduction of the e-way bill system under GST had been “very successful” with no technical glitches.

The GST provision, requiring transporters to carry an electronic waybill when moving goods between States, was implemented from Sunday to check tax evasion and boost revenues.

“E-way roll-out has been very successful and so far there have been no glitches,” Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said. On the first day, 2.59 lakh e-way bills were generated and another 2.89 lakh were generated till 4 p.m. on Monday, GST-Network Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.

When the e-way bill was first introduced on February 1, the systems had collapsed, following which its implementation was deferred.

The system now had capacity to take more load and there were technical teams working on this to ensure that the e-way bill works smoothly, said Mr. Adhia.

He added the schedule for the roll out of e-way bill for intra-State movement of goods would be announced after a week.

Mr. Adhia said ₹89,264 crore revenue had come in from GST for the month of February, taking the total GST collection for the full fiscal to ₹7,17,638 crore.

Asked if the Centre had met the estimated collection from GST as given in revised estimates, he said 98% of the target had been met.

Besides, the Centre had sanctioned GST refunds to exporters to the tune of ₹17,616 crore, he said.

Separately, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “I appeal to the GST Council that [fuel] products be included in the GST framework.” In the context of rising oil prices, he did not mention any possible move to delink prices in India from international oil prices, nor did he say the Centre would consider cutting excise duties on fuel.

(With TCA Sharad Raghavan in New Delhi)

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Source:The Hindu

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