THRISSUR: The website to generate E-way bill was down on Thursday, when the new billing system was introduced by the state government to stop the alleged large-scale GST evasion. Confusion prevailed throughout the day with the transportation of inter-state consignments of Rs 50,000 and above getting stuck in the godowns of traders as the E-Way website was not accessible for printing the bill which was made mandatory from February 1.
The issue comes in wake of the GST site facing several glitches with traders and tax practitioners getting access to the site for filing GST details for nearly 10 days in a month. "The so called 'connectivity issue' with the E-Way billing exemplifies the haphazard way in which the matters related to GST are handled. After loading the consignments to other states and for brining goods to Kerala, the traders had a tough time on Thursday as the site was down from morning," Kerala Tax Practitioners Association district president Vinod P.V. told DC.
"During the training for E-Way billing held a month ago, the GST officials had informed us that for both intra and inter-state transportation of goods of Rs 50,000 and above, it was mandatory. If the traders failed to produce the bill during inspection on the road by GST officials, they would have to pay penalty," he said.
"But the clarification on this issue came with a circular on Wednesday afternoon that only for inter-state movement of goods such a bill was necessary. When we contacted the GST cell on clarification over the site going down, we got a reply that it was due to some connectivity issues," Vinod added. Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Samithi functionary Binny Emmatty said that during the trial run till Wednesday, the E-Way link was working but when it mattered the most, the site was inaccessible.
