Nationwide rollout of inter-state e-Way Bill from April 1: Jaitley

New Delhi, March 10 The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Saturday finalised April 1, 2018 for the nationwide mandatory rollout of inter-state e-Way Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here.

"Intra-state e-Way Bill will be rolled out in phased manner with four groups of states. Each group will come under it every week after April 1 and efforts will be made to implement it across the country by April end," Jaitley said after the 26th GST Council meet.

In its February 24 meeting, a group of ministers headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi recommended April 1 as the date for compulsory implementation of the system for inter-state goods movement.

Under the GST regime, an e-way bill needs to be generated and carried for movement of all goods valued at over Rs 50,000.

Jaitley also said the Council has discussed two alternate ways of return filing processes. But no concrete decision has been taken on it yet.

"The current process of return filing has been extended for another 3 months," Jaitley said.

He said the Group of Ministers and the IT experts would explore the models discussed today and decided on the implementation.

Implementation of reverse charge mechanism has also been extended by three months.