An e-way bill is required when goods above a notified value are transported, whether for sale, transfer or return. It captures the consignment, the parties and the transporter, and carries a validity tied to the distance to be covered.
It can be generated directly on the government portal, through a GST Suvidha Provider (GSP), or from accounting software that integrates with one. It is closely linked to the invoice and, where applicable, the e-invoice.
The document has two parts with different jobs. Part A carries the consignment: the parties' GSTINs, the invoice or challan reference, the goods, their value and the HSN. Part B carries the transport: the vehicle number or the transporter's document reference. Validity does not begin until Part B is first filled, and every change of vehicle en route — a transhipment at a hub, a breakdown swap — requires Part B to be updated before the goods move on.
For inter-state movement the baseline under Rule 138 is consignment value above ₹50,000, while intra-state limits vary state by state under local notifications. The bill is normally generated by whoever causes the movement — consignor or consignee — with the transporter obliged to generate it where the parties have not. The trigger is movement, not sale: branch transfers, job-work despatches, exhibition stock and sales returns all need e-way bills when they cross the value line.
In transit the document meets its test: interception officers verify the e-way bill number against the vehicle and the goods, and a mismatched or missing bill can mean detention of goods and vehicle, with tax and penalty to secure release. The recurring failures are prosaic — vehicle numbers never updated in Part B after transhipment, consignments moving on an invoice alone, and the persistent myth that supplies to unregistered buyers are exempt from the requirement. They are not.