Avalara automates e-way bill creation for Indian businesses

Avalara, the provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for businesses, and a GST Application Service Provider (ASP) in India, helping businesses and tax practitioners in India with GST compliance since August 2017, today announced the addition of e-way bill generation to Avalara TrustFile GST. TrustFile GST’s latest feature introduces a simple process to generate and reconcile e-way bills on the interstate supply of goods, further easing the burden of GST compliance.

In a single process, taxpayers upload transactions to TrustFile GST. TrustFile GST then interfaces with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) system, generates an e-way bill, and files the requisite GSTR-1 form on the GST network (GSTN).

The Indian government has already begun following its roadmap for implementing the e-way bill system. On the first day of the system’s pilot run (Feb. 1, 2018), taxpayers generated about 480,000 e-way bills countrywide. Though users experienced some initial glitches, the government now reports that the GSTN is ready to handle up to 7.5 million e-way bills a day. A group of ministers expects taxpayers to generate about 2.6 million e-way bills everyday initially, eventually increasing to 5 million.

Beginning April 1, 2018, taxpayers must generate e-way bills for all consignments transported interstate and valued above Rs. 50,000.

TrustFile GST makes filing e-way bills, and overall GST compliance, much easier by:

1. Eliminating duplicated entries when filing both e-way bills and GST returns
2. Managing credentials in the case of multiple GST identification numbers (GSTINs)
3. Reducing manual data processing, which will help reduce human error
4. Maintaining transporters multi state registrations and vehicle numbers
5. Creating a unique e-way bill number (EBN) that will be allocated and available to the supplier, recipient, and transporter

Harshad Shinde, Product Manager, Avalara “Considering the huge e-way bill generation requirement, our application has been developed to make GST compliance easier for all. Introduction of the e-way bill is an important step, which is expected to increase GST revenue. It will also help in consolidating the multiple procedures of different states into one nationwide system.”

“Our latest feature is a classic model for enhancing the ease of doing business with the help of technology. Avalara is happy to be associated with the Indian government’s initiatives that serve to ease GST compliance and that go a step further in digitizing the Indian economy.”