24^th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting that held on 16/12/2017 through video conference about the implementation of e-way bill system across the country.

Earlier States were authorized to continue own separate e-way bill systems but undue hardships to the trade and transporters in an Inter-State movement of goods. Therefore, National e-way bill became a necessity.

The GST Council reviewed the progress of readiness of hardware and software required for the introduction of nationwide e-way bill system.

Following decisions were taken after discussion with all the States:

1. The nationwide e-way bill system will be ready to be rolled out on a trial basis latest by 16/01/2018. Trade and transporters can start using this system on a voluntary basis from 16/01/2018.
2. The rules for the implementation of nationwide e-way bill system for Inter-State movements of goods on a compulsory basis will be notified with effective from 01/02/2018. This will bring uniformity across the States for seamless Inter-State movement of goods.
3. While the system for both Inter-State and Intra-State e-way bill generation will be ready by 16/01/2018, the States may choose their own timings for implementation of the e-way bill for Intra-State movement of goods on any date before 01/06/2018. There are certain States which are already having a system of the e-way bill for Intra-State movement also. But in any case, uniform system of the e-way bill for Inter-State as well as the Intra-State movement will be implemented across the country by 01/06/2018.