Eway Bill Blocking Is Harassment

From December 1, 2019 a new rule came into effect. Now if a taxpayer does not file GSTR-3B return for continuous 2 months his Eway bill generation get automatically blocked.

In my opinion this is harassment of tax payers. Tax payer if does not file his returns, he is already paying late filing fee and interest on any tax due and there can be various reasons due to which return may not be filed.

I discussed with many business owners and all of them have different opinions. Here are opinions provided by business owners and consultants.

We delay in return filing because overall business are down and we do not have funds to pay GST but that does not mean we have closed the business. Government to show it's higher GST collection harassing us to borrow money and file returns.

One can understand pain of businesses, it cannot be denied that economy is in deep trouble and people delay their filings because of shortage of funds but that not imply that business is closed. I had a discussion with one hardware retailer and his pain can be very well understood. He purchase materials with cash but most of his sales are into building project where credit period is upto 45 days, banks do not treat small businesses well and he is short of funds. He is ready to pay late filing fee and interest once his funds are realised, now he is not able to generate E-way bill because of non filing of GSTR-3B returns.

Discussion with a tax consultant pointed out one very grave situation resulting into non compliance.

We were aware of the said rule of blocking of Eway bill facility and informed businesses but many businesses are facing credit crunch and because of which we are filing nil returns knowing that returns filed is wrong. We are left with no choice but to file nil returns and show these sales once business gets money.

You can understand the situation here, people are filing wrong returns, though they will match their sales numbers once cash is received by them.

On other part I think government should reconsider this move and instead of 2 months, 6 months should be the standard period to block E-way bill generation facility.

Looking at following difficulties, 2 months delay can be considered normal.

1. GST portal itself is not efficient.
2. Economy is really in trouble.
3. Credit crunch is reality.
4. Non filing does not mean closure of business, E-way bill blocking results in total closure of business.

Government is not considering difficulties of businesses. In my opinion this is the worst finance ministry we ever had. To show a fake boost in GST collection government has come up with this harassing rule. The fact remains that small businesses are more effected by this rule. Arrogance and taking decision without considering difficulties of small businesses government cannot revive economy slow down.

Blocking of E-way bill generation facility is not only a bad step for economy but even for political reasons. People have given enough time to government but GST is still a big headache for businesses. Neither technically nor administratively relief is provided till date.

People are not getting refunds on time, people are not able to file returns on time and government is busy in conducting dummy meetings with business representatives.