Applicability of e-waybill on gold, gold jewellery, precious stones, imitation jewellery, etc.

Rules 138(14) stipulates that no e-waybill is required in case of transportation of jewellery, goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares and other articles.

States to implement the e-way bill and its threshold limit on intra-state movement of gold and precious stones

Based on the recommendation of the 37th GST Council meeting held on 20.09.2019, a GoM was constituted by the GST Council Secretariat vide O.M. dated 22.11.2019 and the mandate of the GoM was to examine the feasibility of implementation of e-Way bill requirement for movement of gold and precious stones or to suggest alternative ways and mechanism for controlling tax evasion. As per the Detailed Agenda Note Volume II of the 47th GST Council Meeting held on 28-6-2022 and 29-6-2022, the GoM suggested that states should be allowed to decide about imposition of the requirement of e-Way bill for intra-state movement of gold and precious stones within their States, with a minimum threshold of INR 2,00,000 and the States could decide any amount above that amount as a minimum threshold and for filling up the e-way bill forms, only part-A of the e-Way bill would be required without any need for filling part-B of the e-Way bill to ensure security of transportation. The minutes of the 47th GST Council Meeting approved the recommendation of the GoM wherein The Secretary stated that it was being left to the States to implement the e-way bill and its threshold limit and only part-A of the e-way bill would be implemented. The Part-B which discloses the identity of the person/transporter would not be declared and this would ensure his security. The Secretary clarified that the implementation was being left to the States and the States had the option to fix the threshold limit at Rs.5 lakhs or Rs. 10 lakhs also. He further clarified that Centre was giving liberty to the respective States and that it was up to the states to implement or not to implement the recommendations.

In this regard, 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. 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 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

E-way bill applicable on intra-state and inter-state movement of Imitation Jewellery

‘Imitation Jewellery’ falling under HSN 7117 has been excluded from these items vide Notification No. 26/2022-CT dated 26-12-2022 meaning thereby e-waybill is required to be generated in case of transportation of ‘Imitation Jewellery’.

Hope it adheres in your business needs!