The report was tabled in the State Assembly on Thursday.

Although the e-way bill was introduced for quick and easy transport of goods, a lack of effective coordination between the e-way bill common portal and the GST common portal led to failure of automated validation controls, it said.

The e-way bill is a document required for the movement of goods and designed to capture the details of the goods before they are transported. It was conceived as a shift from government-monitored tax administration model to a self-reporting model by the taxpayer. The e-way bills were introduced on April 1, 2018 for all inter-State movement of goods with values exceeding ₹50,000. They were made mandatory for intra-State movement of goods valued at over ₹50,000 from April 15, 2018.

Multiple e-way bills

The performance audit found that the system allowed generation of e-way bills by non-filers of returns as well as taxpayers whose registrations were cancelled. It allowed generation of multiple e-way bills for the same invoice number due to a lack of validation control in the e-way bill common portal.

The system could not distinguish between inter-State and intra-State movement of goods by taxpayers who have opted for the composition scheme under the GST mechanism and permitted generation of e-way bills in both cases. Taxpayers were able to generate e-way bills for outward supply even after filing nil return, resulting in leakage of revenue, the report said.

The CAG has recommended the government to get the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which manages the e-way bill common portal, to correct the system deficiencies. The government has also been asked to prescribe guidelines for the verification of e-way bills, and devise a mechanism for detecting taxpayers who transport goods without generating the e-way bills.

Source: The Hindu