E-Way Bill Requirements – Transportation of Goods by Waterways

E-way bill is required to be generated from the E-way bill portal when goods are moved through any of the four modes of transportation i.e. road, rail, ship, and air.

Latest Updates

29th August 2021
From 1st May 2021 to 18th August 2021, the taxpayers will not face blocking of e-way bills for non-filing of GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B (two months or more for monthly filer and one quarter or more for QRMP taxpayers) for March 2021 to May 2021.

4th August 2021
Blocking of e-way bills due to non-filing of GSTR-3B resumes from 15th August 2021.

1st June 2021
1. The e-way bill portal, in its release notes, has clarified that a suspended GSTIN cannot generate an e-way bill. However, a suspended GSTIN as a recipient or as a transporter can get a generated e-way bill. 
2. the mode of transport ‘Ship’ has now been updated to ‘Ship/Road cum Ship’ so that the user can enter a vehicle number where goods are initially moved by road and a bill of lading number and date for movement by ship. This will help in availing the ODC benefits for movement using ships and facilitate the updating of vehicle details as and when moved on road. 

18th May 2021
The CBIC in Notification 15/2021-Central Tax has notified that the blocking of GSTINs for e-Way Bill generation is now considered only for the defaulting supplier’s GSTIN and not for the defaulting recipient or the transporter’s GSTIN. 
 

Following are some of the notable points with respect to goods movement through waterways:

• Bill of lading is a legal document required to ship the goods from one place to another.
• Bill of lading is issued by a carrier to a shipper which acts as the evidence of the contract of carriage. It is an acknowledgment that the goods are loaded onto the transporting vessel.
• Where goods are transported by vessel, the E-Way bill has to be generated by the  supplier or recipient and part B of the e-Way bill has to be updated with the serial number and date of the bill of lading
• For movement of goods by waterways, the e-way bill can be generated even after commencement of movement of goods.
• EWB is not required when goods are moved from port/ land customs station to inland container depot or container freight station for customs clearance
• The validity of the e-way bill starts when the first transport document number
• Entry is made in case of ship transportation and validity is not re-calculated for subsequent entries in Part-B.
• In case the vessel/vehicle is changed i.e. trans-shipment the transporter has the option to extend the e-way bill validity period thereby updating the vehicle details and copies of delivery challans.