CA Nirmal Ghorawat's Blog

In my previous post, I have highlighted the case for a pan-india e-Invoicing Standard under the aegis of the GST Network in collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. At present, various State Tax Jurisdictions require Road permits / Way Bills in case of inter-state transfer of goods by way of Sale / Consignment / Branch Transfer, etc. An indicative list of the requirements is available here (Disclaimer: Third-party website, No liability, express or implied).

At present, the process in vogue for issue of Road permits / Way bills is as follows :-

1.            Seller / Consignor issues & transmits the “Invoice” to Buyer / Consignee & particulars of Transporter.

2.            Buyer / Consignee uploads electronically the details in “Invoice” & particulars of the Transporter  on the website of State Commercial Tax website and generates & downloads the Road permits/ Way Bills from the website of State Commercial Tax department.

3.            Buyer / Consignee transmits the generated Road permit / Way bill to Seller / Consignor.

4.            Seller / Consignor physically dispatches goods alongwith invoice & road permit.

5.            The road permit and invoice are verified at various checkposts with their records of Commercial Tax departments.

The entire process can be streamlined and automated with the generation of e-Invoice by the Seller / Consignor.

1. Seller / Consignor issues & transmits the “e-Invoice” to Buyer / Consignor which also contains the particulars of Transportation.
2. The buyer approves & uploads this “e-Invoice” on the website if the State Commercial Tax department to generate the Road permit / Way Bill. E-Invoice eliminates the need for manual entry at the buyer / consignor’s end while retaining buyer’s control on data processing.
3. Buyer / Consignee transmits the generated Road permit / Way bill to Seller / Consignor.
4. Seller / Consignor physically dispatches goods along with E-invoice & E-road permit.
5. The road permit and invoice are verified at various checkposts with their records of Commercial Tax departments.

 The advent of GST regime is an opportunity to reengineer the entire business process in documentation of transfer of goods.