The Goods and Services Tax regime is making life miserable for the transport and logistics sector Cheap Devin McCourty Jersey , with country-wide cargo movement down to at least half the pre-GST volume and truckers idling at checkposts. The government’s decision to defer the roll out of the national e-way bill requirement and allow states to develop a mechanism till the GST network is ready for this, has created problems for all stakeholders in the sector. Remember, a large amount of trade in this sector traditionally happened with little accountability and major tax avoidance. Now, consigners as well as consignees are stumped with the GST regime Cheap Stephen Gostkowski Jersey , which requires robust tax compliance at all levels. It could take at least a couple of quarters to bring the situation back to normal.
This piece says movement of goods in and from Nagpur has come to a virtual standstill under GST. It goes on to quote the President of the Nagpur Truckers’ Unity as saying that “As businesses come to a halt, it has hampered the entire chain dependent on transport. Drivers have been stranded at the centres where they had last unloaded the goods. Unless there is fresh load, they cannot take off. Workers engaged at the terminals are out of jobs. Even the business of highway food joints is down.”
And this one quotes a toll plaza operator at the Delhi Noida Direct Flyway (DND) to says that the number of trucks entering Delhi has dropped about 40 percent, from 8–9 lakh a day to 5–6 lakh. Uncertain how GST works Cheap Dont'a Hightower Jersey , many truckers have stopped ferrying goods for the time being.
There are some historical and some obvious reasons for this state of affairs. As S P Singh, Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT) , explained, there are about 25 lakh transport intermediaries鈥?mdash;鈥妏eople who ferry goods from one part of the country to another either directly or through freight forwarders鈥?mdash;鈥奲ut only 10 percent of these have registered under the ‘Carriage by Road Act’ which was a mandatory step till the GST regime came into place. As a majority of the stakeholders remain unregistered Cheap James White Jersey , they are unable to operate under the GST regime, scared of getting caught.
Besides, the government’s unpreparedness and consequent deferment of the ‘E-Way Bill’ facility has hampered the logistics sector further. “With states dismantling border checkposts, the absence of mandatory E-waybill system on GSTN portal for random checking of EBN under GST rules for consignments above Rs 50 Cheap Julian Edelman Jersey ,000 will encourage corruption by enforcement agencies and transporters on highways on behalf of unscrupulous goods suppliers,” Singh said.
Brokerage Edelweiss has said in a note to clients that the GST Council decided to defer e-way bill requirements at all-India level and left it to the discretion of states. The GSTN network is also not ready and will take “4–5 months” to implement the