Sometimes, the tax payer raises the bill to somebody and sends the consignment to somebody else as per the business requirements. There is a provision in the e-way bill system to handle this situation, called as ‘Bill to’-‘Ship to’.
In the e-way bill form, there are two portions under ‘TO’ section. In the left hand side – ‘Billing To’ GSTIN and trade name is entered and in the right hand side – ‘Ship to’ address of the destination of the movement is entered. The other details are entered as per the invoice.
In case ‘ship to’ state is different from ‘Bill to’ State, the tax components are entered as per the billing state party. That is, if the ‘Bill to’ location is inter-state for the supplier, IGST is entered and if the ‘Bill to’ Party location is intra-state for the supplier, the SGST and CGST are entered irrespective of movement of goods whether movement happened within state or outside the state.
In this case, validity of e-way bill depends on distance of ‘ship to’ location.
National Informatics Center (NIC) has brought following improvements / enhancements in ‘Bill To – Ship To’ transactions in E-Way Bill System w.e.f. 16/11/2018:-
EWB generation is now categorized to four types now:- Regular and Bill to Ship to, Bill from Dispatch from & combination of both.
There are four types of ‘Bill To – Ship To’ transactions. These types depend upon the number of parties involved in the billing and movement of the goods. The following paras explain the same.
o Regular: This is a regular or normal transaction, where Billing and goods movement are happening between two parties – consignor and consignee. That is, the Bill and goods movement from consignor to consignee takes place directly.
o Bill To – Ship To: In this type of transaction, three parties are involved. Billing takes places between consignor and consignee, but the goods move from consignor to the third party as per the request of the consignee.
o Bill From – Dispatch From: In this type of transaction also, three parties are involved. Billing takes places between consignor and consignee, but the goods are moved by the consignor from the third party to the consignee.
o Combination of both: This is the combination of above two transactions and involves four parties. Billing takes places between consignor and consignee, but the goods are moved by the consignor from the third party to the fourth party, as per the consignee’s request.
Let’s take an example:-
In a typical “Bill To Ship To” model of supply, there are three persons involved in a transaction, namely:
- ‘A’ is the person who has ordered ‘B’ to send goods directly to ‘C’.
- ‘B’ is the person who is sending goods directly to ‘C’ on behalf of ‘A’.
- ‘C’ is the recipient of goods.
In this complete scenario two supplies are involved and accordingly two tax invoices are required to be issued:
Invoice -1, which would be issued by ‘B’ to ‘A’.
Invoice -2 which would be issued by ‘A’ to ‘C’.
Now the Query is that who would generate the e-Way Bill for the movement of goods which is taking place from ‘B’ to ‘C’ on behalf of ‘A’.
As per the CGST Rules, 2017 either ‘A’ or ‘B’ can generate the e-Way Bill but it may be noted that only one e-Way Bill is required to be generated as per the following procedure:
Case -1: Where e-Way Bill is generated by ‘B’, the following fields shall be filled in Part A of GST FORM EWB-01:
| 1 | Bill From | In this field details of ‘B’ are supposed to be filled. |
| 2 | Dispatch From | This is the place from where goods are actually dispatched. It may be the principal or additional place of business of ‘B’ |
| 3 | Bill To | In this field details of ‘A’ are supposed to be filled. |
| 4 | Ship to | In this field address of ‘C’ is supposed to be filled. |
| 5 | Invoice Details | Details of Invoice-1 are supposed to be filled |
Case 2 : Where e-Way Bill is generated by “A”, the following fields shall be filled in Part A of GST FORM EWB-01:
| 1 | Bill From | In this field details of ‘A’ are supposed to be filled. |
| 2 | Dispatch From | This is the place from where goods are actually dispatched. It may be the principal or additional place of business of ‘B’ |
| 3 | Bill To | In this field details of ‘C’ are supposed to be filled. |
| 4 | Ship to | In this field address of ‘C’ is supposed to be filled. |
| 5 | Invoice Details | Details of Invoice-2 (A to C) are supposed to be filled |
In the above example, we have seen ‘Bill to’ and ‘Ship to’ situation. In this example, it is also being clarified the other situation ‘Bill from’- ‘Dispatch from’ situation. Following is the further detail of ‘Bill from’- ‘Dispatch from’ situation:-
How to handle “Bill from” – “Dispatch from” invoice in e-way bill system?
Sometimes, the supplier prepares the bill from his business premises to consignee, but moves the consignment from some others’ premises to the consignee as per the business requirements. This is known as ‘Billing From’ and ‘Dispatching From’. E-way bill system has provision for this.
In the e-way bill form, there are two portions under ‘FROM’ section. In the left hand side – ‘Bill From’ supplier’s GSTIN and trade name are entered and in the right hand side – ‘Dispatch From’, address of the dispatching place is entered. The other details are entered as per the invoice. In case “Bill From location State” is different from the “State of Dispatch” the Tax components are entered as per the State (Bill From). That is, if the billing party is inter-state for the supplier, IGST is entered and if the billing party is intra-state for the supplier, the SGST and CGST are entered irrespective of movement of goods whether movement happened within state or outside the state.
