On 12th September 2022, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) released an update on the e-way bill portal regarding the generation of e-way bills for the movement of gold, gold jewellery and precious stones.
As per the GST Council, the e-way bill requirement has been laid down for the transportation of gold falling under the HSN Chapter 71 for all Interstate and Intrastate transactions.
The taxpayers in a state may create an e-way bill for gold as per the notification published by their respective states. One can generate an e-way bill for gold through a different window on the main menu.
One can navigate from their dashboard to the tab ‘e-way bill’ on the left-hand side of the dashboard → click on ‘EWB for Gold’ to enter the Part-A details. It opens up the ‘e-way bill for gold entry form’ where the user needs to enter the invoice details, sender and receiver address.
The parameters to create an e-way bill for gold are the same as any regular e-way bill. However, taxpayers need not update e-way bills with the Part-B vehicle/transporter details. Such exemption is given on account of safety reasons.
Further, the validity of the e-way bill for gold is computed based on the pin-to-pin distance. The system considers the distance between the origin and the destination picked up from the PIN code entered in each address.
The taxpayer generating an e-way bill for gold must ensure that all the items listed in the invoice fall under HSN Chapter 71 mandatorily. Suppose items fall under any other HSN chapter together with HSN chapter 71. In that case, such an e-way bill will be treated as a regular e-way bill and can be generated together with the Part-B details.
The facilities regarding cancellation and rejection of the e-way bill continue to be available for the movement of gold. Accordingly, the following are some changes in functionalities for e-way bills generated for the movement of gold-
- Part-B details cannot be updated by default
- No update on the transporter is allowed
- There is no option to generate a consolidated e-way bill
- Extension of validity of e-way bill is permitted without the need to revise the Part-B
- There is no option of multi-vehicle
In the previous GST Council meeting held in June 2022, the government mandated using an e-way bill to transport gold and precious stones within states. The states could fix the threshold limit for this purpose by respective state notifications. However, the Group of Ministers (GoM) formed to study the matter recommended the limit be fixed at Rs.2 lakh and above.
However, a Central Tax notification to remove Chapter 71 from the list of exemptions is yet to be notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at annapoorna.m@clear.in
Annapoorna, popularly known as Anna, is an aspiring Chartered Accountant with a flair for GST. She spends most of her day Singing hymns to the tune of jee-es-tee! Well, not most of her day, just now and then.
