E-way bill generation fell to 3 month low in February; GST Collection may suffer in March

E-way bill generation in February decreased to over 8.18 crore, a three-month low. In January and December, it was over 8.24 crore and 8.41 crore, respectively.

Theoretically, February’s data cover 28 days, although the two months before it (January and December) cover 31 days overall. However, for the financial year 2021–22, the number of e-way bills created in December was 7.16 crore, which decreased to 6.88 crore in January but increased to 6.91 crore in February.

An Indication

The e-way bill creation for a given month provides insight into the GST collection for the following month. This indicates that fewer e-way invoices in February could result in poorer collection. E-way bill production, according to some experts, is not a direct factor in revenue collection.

An electronic waybill that documents the movement of goods is created on a portal. Any registered person who causes the movement of goods (which may not always be on account of supply) with a consignment value of more than Rs.50,000 is required to produce the e-way bill in accordance with Rule 138 of the CGST Regulations, 2017. If the shipment is being transported by own or hired vehicle, railroad, air, or ship, this must be produced by the consignor or consignee themselves.

Festival Push

The amount of GST collected every month between March 2022 and February 2023 was at least Rs. 1.40 lakh crore. In reality, April 2022 witnessed the largest collection of all time of Rs.1.68 crore, with January of this year’s first quarter coming in second with Rs.1.56 crore or more. Currently, the government anticipates more than Rs. 1.50 crore in the upcoming months.