The State Government of Tamil Nadu vide its notification dated 15th November 2021
has issued instructions regarding Levy of penalty for minor defects in E-Way Bill not intended for GST Evasion.
The Government in its earlier circular dated 31st May 2019 has notified the procedure to be followed in the Intelligence Wing and its functions, in which para 10 deals the circumstances where penalty up to Rs.5000 per act shall be levied.
However, this circular has been issued at the nascent stage of e-way bill system development which has not addressed multiple places of delivery, multimodal shipment and over dimensional cargo etc.
“Where the person in charge of conveyance carrying consignment of goods carries the documents prescribed under rule 138A or rule 55A, (i.e. e-way bill has been generated and invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, as the case may be), but the case involves minor defects not intended for evasion of tax in the particular transaction and the documents otherwise manifestly show sufferance of tax in that transaction, a penalty of up to Rs.5000 per Act shall be levied.
Further, the production of tax invoice or bill of supply or delivery note in an electronic mode by the person in-charge of goods transport vehicle has been examined at length.
As per Section-68 of the TNGST Act, 2017, the Government may require the person in charge of a conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding such amount as may be specified to carry with him such documents and such devices as may be prescribed.
The person-in-charge of a conveyance, on demand of the Roving Squad Officer, shall produce;
- e-way bill, either physically or electronically, or the e-way bill number alone, to substantiate that, the e-way bill was generated prior to commencement of movement of goods.
- Invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, as the case may be, either physically or electronically. In case of production of invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, electronically, it may be shown in e-mail, or in whatsapp or such other applications, in mobile phone or such other electronic devices, to clearly indicate that, the person in charge of the conveyance has received the document, prior to the commencement of movement of goods, with date and time of the document.
