E-way bill or Electronic Way bill is a bill issued for the movement of goods from one destination to another. This bill is must for the commencing the movement of goods, if the value exceeds ₹50,000/-. This e-way bill can be generated through e-Way Bill portal or Android App or through SMS or Excel for bulk generation of bills. On issuance of this bill, a unique E-way Bill Number (EBN) is allocated and is made available to consignor, consignee and transporter.
As per the latest guidelines issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, In terms of Rule 138E (a) and (b) of the CGST Rules, 2017, the E-Way Bill (EWB) generation facility of a taxpayer is to be blocked, in case the taxpayer fails to file their returns in Form GSTR-3B or Statement in Form CMP-08, for two or more consecutive tax periods. For unblocking of this facility, taxpayer need to apply to jurisdictional Tax Official in Form GST EWB 05. Therefore, if the taxpayer fails to file GSTR-3B or Statement in Form CMP-08 for two or more consecutive months, then he shall not be able to generate e-way bills for the purpose of dispatching and receiving goods.
What happens when e-way is blocked?
If the GST registered taxpayer has not filed his GSTR-3B for two or more consecutive months or Statement in Form CMP-08, then the same will be reflected on the e-way bill system and will block the GSTIN of the taxpayer. When the bill gets blocked, it cannot be used for generation as Consignor or Consignee. When the e-way is blocked, the taxpayers face the following type of situations:
– Error message appears on the screen of the registered taxpayer trying to generate a new e-way bill for bulk generation.
-If any taxpayer/transporter enters the blocked GSTIN of another party while e-waybill generation, the similar message will appear.
How to process application for unblocking the e-way bill generation facility on GST Portal?
In order to process the application for unblocking the e-way bill generation facility on GST Portal, the taxpayer needs to follow the following steps:
Step 1: Login to the GST Portal
Step 2: After logging in, scroll over to Services → User Services → My Applications
Step 3: Under My Applications, select application type as “Application for Blocking of E-way Bill”
Step 4: Click on “New Application”
Step 5: Now submit the application in Form EWB-05 along with the required documents
Step 6: On submission, the application filed will get uploaded to dashboard of Jurisdictional Tax Official
After following all the above steps, the Tax Officer can either accept or reject the application. If he chooses to accept the application, then the same will be approved through an order via Form EWB-6. On acceptance of the application, the e-way bill generation facility will be restored for the duration specified in the order. On the other hand, if the Tax Officer rejects the taxpayer’s application vide order in Form EWB-06, the EWB generation facility will remain blocked and the taxpayer shall be required to file their pending returns (in Form GSTR-3B / Statement in FORM CMP-08, so as to reduce the pendency to less than two tax periods), for restoration of the EWB generation facility.
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