The Telangana government’s suggestion to introduce e-way bill to beat tax evasion post-GST has been accepted by the Centre. With the centre deciding to take the cue from Telangana, the TRS government is now planning to merge its e-way bill system with the national platform by January 15. The e-way bill system will be operational nationwide from February 1.
The Centre pressed the panic button after its tax collections reported a fall of ₹10,000 crore in November 2017. Following this, the Union revenue department convened a meeting with senior officers from different states for three days in December in which Telangana was represented by principal secretary Somesh Kumar. According to sources, Kumar explained the e-way bill system that was introduced in Telangana in August, 2017 by which the state has been able to control tax evasion by inter-state traders.
“After launching the eway bill system, we conducted raids and inspected 2859 vehicles in the state. We found 226 vehicle transporting goods without having valid documents. We then collected ₹1.98 crore as penalty,” Somesh Kumar told TOI. Apparently, many consignments carrying iron, steel, sugar, timber and chemical reported less quantity and value than they were carrying in order to minimise tax.
