HYDERABAD: Technical glitches and choked up servers stalled nationwide enforcement of the Electronic-Waybill (e-waybill) that was to begin on February 1. It has now been deferred indefinitely and the trial period has been extended. It would be made compulsory from a date that will be announced at a later time, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) authorities said.
The e-waybill is an electronic bill that is generated for transport of goods inter and intra-state above an invoice of Rs 50,000. Telangana had earlier implemented the e-way bill from Jan 23 on trial basis, much before the nationwide mandatory date of Feb 1. “We faced problems from morning 10 am today. The website was not responding and said the servers are busy. We kept trying but managed to raise e-waybills only for a few of our clients,” said Thangamanikyam V, a tax consultant with Sameera tax consultants, Erragadda.
“In a particular instance today, where a company had goods worth over Rs 50,000 but could not generate an e-waybill, the owner hired two transporters and generated two invoices. He was able to move the goods by keeping the invoices for each transport lower than Rs 50,000 cap, “ he added.The problem was first highlighted by annoyed businessmen on social media, where traders complained about the unpreparedness of the system. With the servers going down, traders who were trying to raise the e-waybill attempted to reach out to the call centres found the lines busy.