Updated on February 16th, 2019 in E-Way Bill

E-Way Bills for Imports & Exports

Are e-way bills required to be issued for imports and exports as well?

Since imports and exports have been considered as inter-state supplies under the GST act, the e-way bill is required to be issued for these transactions as well. For imports, the e-way bill will be generated by the importer. The exporter is liable to generate the e-way bill for export supplies.

Before we delve into the steps for generating e-way bills, let’s understand how the processes take place –

Import Process

• When goods reach the seaport or airport, the import is said to be completed. Goods remain under the custody of the Customs Department until the importer pays the custom duty.

• From the port/ airport, goods are moved to inland container depot. For this movement, there is no requirement of issuing the e-way bill.

• At the Inland Container Depot (ICD), the importer files the Bill of Entry and pays the import duty. After this, the goods are cleared for home consumption.

• If the importer moves the goods from the Inland Container Depot to the factory or any other place of business, he has to generate the e-way bill.

• If the goods are moved from the Inland Container Depot to the bonded warehouse, there is no requirement of issuing the e-way bill. However, when goods are moved from the bonded warehouse to the factory of any other place of business at a future date, the e-way bill has to be issued.

Export Process

• Goods are moved from the place of business or warehouse of the exporter to Inland Container Depot (ICD) or Customs Freight Station (CFS). For the movement, an e-way bill has to be issued.

• After filing the shipping bill, goods are moved from ICD or CFS to the port or airport. E-way is not required to be issued for this movement.

What details shall be furnished in an E-Way Bill?

Field in E-way bill	Data to be filled for Import	Data to be filled for Export
Transaction Type	Inward	Outward
Sub Type	Import	Export
Document Type	Bill of Entry	Tax Invoice for the goods to be exported
Document No	Bill of Entry Number	Tax Invoice Number
Bill From	Importer’s Name, GSTIN – “URP”	Importer’s Name, GSTIN – “URP”
Dispatch From	PIN Code – 999999 Place – Outside Country	Address from where the exporter moves goods
Bill To	Importers’ details (Name, GSTIN, etc.)	Exporter’s Name, GSTIN – “URP”
Ship To	Address of the importers’ place of business/ bonded warehouse	PIN Code – 999999 Place – Outside Country
Item Details	HSN Code of goods imported and the value of goods	HSN Code of goods exported and the value of goods
Transporter Details	Vehicle details, transporter ID etc.	Vehicle details, transporter ID etc.

How to compute validity and distance for E-Way Bill?

The validity of e-way bill is based on the distance of transportation of goods which is as follows –

Distance	Validity Period
Upto 100 Kms.	One Day
For every 100 Kms. Or part thereof after that	One additional day

In the case of imports, the distance will be calculated from the ICD or CFS to the place of business (factory etc.). For exports, the distance will be calculated from the place of business or the warehouse to the ICD or CFS. Based on the distance, the validity will be computed.