New Delhi: In a notification, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBIC) said “where an e-way bill has been
generated and its period of validity expires during the period 20 March, 2020, to 15 April, 2020, the validity period of such e-way bill shall be deemed to have been extended till the 30 April, 2020”.
In the electronic way (E-way) bill system businesses and transporters have to produce before a Goods and Services
Tax (GST) inspector e-way bill for moving goods worth over Rs 50,000 from one state to another. Currently e-way
bills have a validity of 1 day for every 100 km. For over dimensional cargo (ODC), like trucks, the validity is 1
day for every 20 km.
The government had announced a country-wide 21-day lockdown beginning March 25 to contain the spread of
coronavirus. AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan said government has given much needed relief to taxpayers by extending the validity of e-way bill for movement of goods where validity was expiring during the lockdown period.
“It is now expected that no state authority would charge the transporter or owner of goods where movement of goods is being affected on the basis of an expired e-way bill,” Mohan added.
EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jain said with “most e-way bills for stranded vehicles having expired, businesses were
apprehensive on possible interception of these vehicles”.