No E-Way Bill from 21st June 2019 if the GST Return has not been Filed for the Last 2 Months

Government has come up with new provisions pertaining to E-Way Bill to be implemented from 21^st June 2019.

Vide Notification No. 74/2018 dated 13.12.2018 a new rule 138E was already inserted by the Govt., which contains the following salient features –

• The original script of the relevant provisions has been incorporated below for your reference.

“138E. Restriction on furnishing of information in PART A of FORM GST EWB-01. – Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule (1) of rule 138, no person (including a consignor, consignee, transporter, an e-commerce operator or a courier agency) shall be allowed to furnish the information in PART A of FORM GST EWB-01 in respect of a registered person, whether as a supplier or a recipient, who, –

(a) Being a person paying tax under section 10 has not furnished the returns for two consecutive tax periods; or

(b) Being a person other than a person specified in clause (a) has not furnished the returns for a consecutive period of two months:

Provided that the Commissioner may, on sufficient cause being shown and for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, allow furnishing of the said information in PART A of FORM GST EWB-01, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be specified by him:

Provided further that no order rejecting the request of such person to furnish the information in PART A of FORM GST EWB-01 under the first proviso shall be passed without affording the said person a reasonable opportunity of being heard :

Provided also that the permission granted or rejected by the Commissioner of State tax or Commissioner of Union territory tax shall be deemed to be granted or, as the case may be, rejected by the Commissioner.

• Now, let us understand it in simple terms:

According to Notification No. 74/2018 dated 13.12.2018 a new rule 138E in relevance to E-Way Bill was already inserted by the Govt., and it is now going to be implemented on and from 21^st June 2019. According to this new provision –

1. If a registered regular taxpayer has not filed the GST Returns for the last 2 months, or
2. If a taxpayer registered under the ‘Composition Scheme’ has not filed the GST Returns for last 2 quarters.

Then –

He will not be allowed to Generate E-Way Bill on the GST E-Way Bill Portal.

In such circumstances, only the commissioner would be able to allow such generation in selected cases that too with an order.

Note: For the purposes of this rule, the term “Commissioner” stands for the jurisdictional Commissioner in respect of the persons specified in clauses (a) and (b).

What one should do?

1) One should file one’s all Returns up to April 2019 by 20^th June 2019.

2) In case, Returns are not filed, then the E-way bill will not be generated.

3) In case one has some difficulty to do so of one’s own, then the other person will generate on his/her behalf then that also won’t be possible.

Consequently, each and every registered taxpayer who generates e-way bill is requested to file all their pending Returns till April 2019, to avoid any last minute hassle.