What is Blocking
The blocking of E-way Bill generation shall denote not allowing the taxpayer to produce an E-way bill if the person has to be paid the GST Return for the two successive months or quarters.
What are the Statutory provisions that are to be taken care of
- Under Rule 138E of Central Goods and Service Tax Rules, no person or agency shall be permitted to provide the information in Part A of GST EWB 01 Form in relation to a registered person as a supplier or a recipient whereas;
- A person paying tax within the composition scheme has not provided the statement in the Form GST CMP-08 for two consecutive quarters.
- A person other than mentioned in the above clause has not provided the GST Returns for two months.
- In one of the notifications of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in the year 2019, those who have not filed GST Return would not be allowed to generate an E-way bill. However, this has been set aside on various grounds.
- In the same year, the anti-evasion step was scheduled to come but the same was set aside.
- The above rule was modified in the year 2020 which shall only apply to the taxpayers above Rs 5 crore turnover thresholds.
- It has been already clarified by the Central Board of Indirect Tax and Customs (CBIC) that E-way bill generation criteria shall be unavailable or blocked for all the Taxpayers notwithstanding of their aggregate annual turnover those who failed to file GSTR-3B for two or more times from December 2020.
- The generation of E-way bill procedure shall be liable to be restricted if the taxpayer is unable or fails to file its Form GSTR-3B returns or Statement in Form GST CMP-08,
- In the year 2020, the E-way Bills generation was blocked by the system in the following cases:
- When a GSTR 3B return is not filed two or more times for the months till October 2020 or
- When a CMP-08 statement is not filed two or more times for the months from July 2020 to September 2020.
- If the E-way bill is blocked than in that case:
- When a taxpayer tries to generate a new E-way bill for bulk generation, a notification will appear each time and
- If any taxpayer tries to enter into the blocked GSTIN as another party for E-way bill generation the above-mentioned notification will be displayed.
The procedure for unblocking of E-way bill
- It gives access to the generation of E-way bills for the GSTIN.
- On the e-way bill portal, E-way bill generation would be automatically unblocked when a taxpayer attempts to files GST Return.
- If a blocked taxpayer has filed the return on the GST portal but the next day his GSTIN gets unblocked on the system and allows generating the e-way bills.
- For the generation of an E-way bill on an immediate basis after filing the return, then the person can go on the e-way portal and select the function ‘Search’ and enter the GSTIN to see the status.
- If found blocked then he can click on the update option to get the latest filing status from the GST Portal and get unblocked.
- If GSTIN is still blocked by the system for e-way bill generation, then the person can contact the help desk of GST and register the complaint about resolving.
Raising Online Request for Unblocking
- For unlocking of the E-way bill generation with a jurisdictional tax officer, an online request shall be made
- Earlier, the taxpayer used to apply manually. Now the online facility has been provided.
Steps required for Online Unblocking
- For filing an online application for unblocking E-way bill generation on GST Portal follow these steps:
- Firstly, log in to the portal and search for My applications under Services.
- Choose application type as “Application for unblocking of E-way bill” and select New Application.
- The draft Application for unblocking the E-way bill will be displayed.
- Also, Select and click on the expected date for filing of returns of the default periods using the calendar.
- Then click on the valid reason for unblocking by Taxpayer from the drop-down list.
- The above application shall reflect on the dashboard of the Jurisdictional tax official.
- The tax officer may issue a notice for a personal hearing to the taxpayer.
- Then the taxpayer can file his reply online along with valid documents.
- After the proceedings are completed, the tax officer or regulatory authority may issue and serve an order approving the taxpayer application for generation and unblocking the E-way bill facility.
- Now, the generation facility shall be available for the specified time period.
- On the contrary, if the tax officer rejects the taxpayer’s application under Form EWB-06 then the generation facility shall remain blocked and the taxpayer will be asked to file pending GST Returns for the restoration of the facility.
- The order or notice issued by the Tax Officer will be sent on SMS and on the mail to the taxpayer and also will appear on the dashboard of the taxpayer.