Published 15 October 2026
Generating an e-way bill takes a few minutes. Most of the trouble comes later. A truck breaks down and the bill expires at midnight. A wrong GSTIN is spotted the next morning, after the window to cancel has closed. A customer finds a bill raised in its name for goods it never ordered. The rules give each of these a fixed window, some measured in hours, and the portal enforces them by the clock.
This guide covers the procedure from first login to the end of the bill’s life. E-Way Bills: When One Is Needed covers the prior question of whether a bill is needed at all.
The two parts of the form
FORM GST EWB-01 has two parts.
-
Part A describes the transaction:
- GSTIN of supplier and recipient (“URP” for an unregistered person)
- places of dispatch and delivery by PIN code
- document number and date
- value of goods and HSN code
- reason for transportation
The reasons are coded in the form: supply, export or import, job work, SKD or CKD or supply in batches or lots, recipient not known, line sales, sales return, exhibition or fairs, for own use, and others.
-
Part B identifies the conveyance: the vehicle number for road, or the transport document number for rail, air or ship. The transport document may be a goods receipt, railway receipt, forwarding note, parcel way bill, airway bill or bill of lading.
Under rule 138(1), Part A is furnished “before commencement of such movement”. Until Part B is filled, the portal issues only a Part-A slip, which is not an e-way bill. Under the second proviso to rule 138(9), the number generated on Part A “shall be valid for a period of fifteen days for updation of Part B”. By Explanation 2 to rule 138(3), a bill without Part B “shall not be valid for movement of goods by road”, except on the two 50 km legs described in the previous guide.
Who generates it
Rule 138 spreads the task across several people.
| Person | When | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier or recipient (registered) | Causes the movement and transports in own, hired or public conveyance by road; fills Part A and Part B | rule 138(1), (2) |
| Transporter | On authorisation from the registered person, fills Part A | first proviso to rule 138(1) |
| Transporter | Goods handed over for road transport and the consignor or consignee has not generated the bill; generates on the Part A details furnished by the registered person | rule 138(3) |
| E-commerce operator or courier agency | Goods supplied through it, on the consignor’s authorisation | second proviso to rule 138(1) |
| Supplier or recipient | Goods moved by rail, air or vessel; Part B may be filled “either before or after the commencement of movement” | rule 138(2A) |
| Unregistered person or its transporter | Optional, after enrolment in FORM GST ENR-03 | second and fifth provisos to rule 138(3) |
The portal’s FAQ adds that where a transporter, courier or e-commerce operator fills Part A, “it will be assumed by the department that they have got authorization from consignor”. Under rule 138(4), the e-way bill number is made available to the supplier, the recipient and the transporter. Under rule 138(8), Part A data is offered to the registered supplier for use in GSTR-1.
Duplicates are blocked. Since April 2019 the portal has not allowed a second e-way bill on the same document. It checks the consignor GSTIN, document type and document number. Where the consignor has already generated a bill on an invoice, no one else can generate another. Where the consignee or transporter generated first, the manual says the portal warns any later party but lets it continue. The bill-to-ship-to case, where two invoices travel under one bill, is covered in E-Way Bills in Special Cases.
What to have ready
- The document: tax invoice, bill of supply, delivery challan or bill of entry, with number and date. This comes from the books. The portal accepts a document date only within 180 days before the date of generation (see the 2025 changes below).
- Party details: GSTINs, legal names, addresses and PIN codes of the consignor, the consignee and any separate dispatch-from or ship-to location.
- Item lines: product name, HSN, quantity, unit, taxable value and tax rates. The portal’s manual (version 1.7, June 2025) asks for at least four digits of HSN where annual turnover is below Rs 5 crore and six digits above it. It also says a bill “cannot be generated with only SAC codes (99)”.
- Transport details: the transporter’s 15-character ID (GSTIN or enrolment ID), or the vehicle number for road. For rail, air or ship, the transport document number and date.
- Distance: the portal calculates road distance from the two PIN codes. Its FAQ says the entry may vary only within 10 per cent of that figure. Where both PIN codes are the same, the entry is capped at 100 km.
- Login with two-factor authentication. GSTN’s advisory of 17 December 2024 made multi-factor authentication mandatory in stages: from 1 January 2025 for AATO above Rs 20 crore, from 1 February 2025 above Rs 5 crore, and “from 1st April 2025 for all other taxpayers and users”. The OTP comes by SMS, through the Sandes app, or from the NIC-GST-Shield app. Each sub-user authenticates separately on that sub-user’s registered mobile number.
Generating the bill on the portal
The portal is at ewaybillgst.gov.in. A registered person registers once on it using the GSTIN and an OTP sent to the mobile number held on the GST portal, and chooses a username and password. The NIC user manual for taxpayers (version 1.7, 24 June 2025) describes these steps.
- Log in with username, password and OTP. Under e-Waybill, select Generate New.
- Choose the transaction type, Outward or Inward, and the sub-type (supply, export, job work, SKD/CKD/lots and so on). The portal then offers only the document types allowed for that sub-type.
- Enter the document number and date. The number accepts letters, digits, “/” and “-”.
- Choose the transaction type: Regular, Bill To–Ship To, Bill From–Dispatch From, or a combination of both. Fill the From and To blocks. Saved client and supplier masters can fill these automatically.
- Enter each item: product, HSN, quantity, taxable value and rate. The portal computes CGST and SGST for intra-State movement and IGST for inter-State movement. Non-ad valorem cess is entered by hand.
- Enter the transporter name and ID, and the approximate distance.
- In Part B, choose the mode (road, rail, air, or ship/road cum ship) and the vehicle type, and enter the vehicle number or transport document. For ship or road-cum-ship, the vehicle type must be ODC. The portal checks the vehicle number against the Vahan database. Temporary registration numbers are accepted.
- Submit. The portal validates the entries and issues a 12-digit e-way bill number (EBN) with its validity, which can be printed.
If the transporter will fill Part B later, the generator enters the transporter ID and stops at the Part-A slip. A taxpayer moving goods in its own vehicle can enter its own GSTIN as transporter ID to create the slip. The bill then exists only once Part B is entered.
Other routes reach the same result:
- SMS and the mobile app (registered against the user’s mobile number or device)
- bulk upload of a JSON file (up to 5 MB, per the manual)
- API integration, or a GST Suvidha Provider
- for e-invoiced documents, generation from the IRN, where Part A is filled from the e-invoice under rule 138A(3)
Generating an E-Invoice: IRN, QR Code and Cancellation covers the IRN route.
The second portal. NIC opened a parallel portal, ewaybill2.gst.gov.in, in June 2024. GSTN’s advisory of 16 June 2025 enhanced it from 1 July 2025. The two systems now mirror each other “within seconds”. An NIC note posted on the portal on 5 August 2025 says bills generated on either portal can have Part B updated, be extended, or change transporter on the other. NIC describes these interoperable services as “intended primarily for emergency or fall back use only”.
How long a bill lasts
Rule 138(10) fixes validity by the distance to be covered within India.
| Distance | Validity: ordinary cargo | Validity: Over Dimensional Cargo or multimodal with a ship leg |
|---|---|---|
| First 200 km (ordinary) / first 20 km (ODC) | one day | one day |
| Each further 200 km (ordinary) / each further 20 km (ODC), or part | one additional day | one additional day |
The 200 km figure replaced 100 km from 1 January 2021 (Notification No. 94/2020-Central Tax). Over Dimensional Cargo is “a cargo carried as a single indivisible unit and which exceeds the dimensional limits prescribed in rule 93 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989”. The same 20 km rate applies to a “multimodal shipment in which at least one leg involves transport by ship”.
Under Explanation 1, validity runs from the time of generation. Each day ends “at midnight of the day immediately following the date of generation”. The portal’s FAQ gives an illustration: a bill generated at 00:04 hours or at 23:58 hours on 14 March has its first day end at midnight between 15 and 16 March. A 310 km journey gets two days (one for the first 200 km, one for the remaining 110 km). The FAQ adds that validity starts with the first Part B entry and “is not re-calculated for subsequent entries in Part-B”.
The first proviso to rule 138(10) allows the Commissioner, on the Council’s recommendation, to extend validity for categories of goods by notification. Separately, during the 2020 lockdown, the validity of bills expiring in that period was extended by Notifications No. 35/2020, 40/2020 and 47/2020-Central Tax.
Updating Part B, changing transporter, and consolidating
Change of vehicle. Under rule 138(5), where goods are moved from one conveyance to another, Part B must be updated “before such transfer and further movement of goods”. The portal’s FAQ says Part B may be updated “as many times” as needed within validity. At any point the vehicle shown “should match with the details of conveyance through which goods are actually being transported”. Updates are made by the generator, or by the transporter currently assigned.
Change of transporter. Under rule 138(5A), the bill may be assigned to another registered or enrolled transporter. Once a transporter has updated Part B, the consignor or recipient can no longer reassign it (proviso to rule 138(5A)).
Consolidated e-way bill. Under rule 138(6), a transporter carrying several consignments in one conveyance may generate a consolidated e-way bill in FORM GST EWB-02 listing the individual bill numbers. The FAQ describes it as “like a trip sheet” with no validity of its own. Each consignment must still arrive within the validity of its own bill. If the vehicle changes, the portal’s “Regenerate CEWB” option issues a new consolidated bill and the old one becomes invalid.
Multiple vehicles for one bill are handled through the “Change to Multi Vehicle” option, covered in the next guide.
Extending validity
The second proviso to rule 138(10) allows extension where, “under circumstances of an exceptional nature, including trans-shipment, the goods cannot be transported within the validity period”. The transporter may then “extend the validity period after updating the details in Part B”. A third proviso, inserted by Notification No. 31/2019-Central Tax, adds that “the validity of the e-way bill may be extended within eight hours from the time of its expiry”.
The portal opens the window on both sides. The user manual says the bill can be extended “eight hours before or within eight hours after the existing validity time”. GSTN’s advisory of 1 January 2025 describes the procedure in the same terms. The steps are as follows.
- Only “the present transporter of the e-way bill” can extend (manual, section 5.10).
- Under Extend Validity, the transporter enters the bill number, chooses a reason and explains it.
- It states whether the consignment is In Movement (with mode and vehicle) or In Transit (on road, in a warehouse or other, with the address).
- It gives the current place and the remaining distance. The portal grants further days for that distance at the rule 138(10) rates. By default, the extended validity runs to midnight of the extended day.
The 360-day cap. GSTN’s advisory of 17 December 2024 announced that, from 1 January 2025, “the extension of E-Way Bills will be limited to 360 days from their original date of generation”. Its example is that a bill generated on 1 January 2025 “can only be extended up to 25th December 2025”. The June 2025 manual confirms that validity “can be extended up to 360 days from the generated date”. This is a system limit announced by advisory. It does not appear in rule 138.
A bill that has expired outside the window cannot be extended. The goods then need a fresh bill before they move again.
Cancelling a bill
Rule 138(9) allows cancellation “within twenty four hours of generation of the e-way bill” where “goods are either not transported or are not transported as per the details furnished in the e-way bill”. Its first proviso adds that “an e-way bill cannot be cancelled if it has been verified in transit in accordance with the provisions of rule 138B”. The portal’s Cancel option takes the 12-digit number and a reason. The manual adds that only the generator can cancel, and that a cancelled bill must not be used. Bills cannot be deleted.
Part A cannot be edited. The portal’s FAQ states: “The e-way bill once generated cannot be edited or modified. Only Part-B can be updated.” A wrong GSTIN, value, HSN or document number is corrected only by cancelling within twenty-four hours and generating afresh. This lock is long-standing and is not a 2025 change.
Rejection by the other party
Under rule 138(11), the bill’s details are made available to the other party: the supplier, if registered, where the recipient or transporter filled Part A, or the recipient, if registered, where the supplier or transporter did. That party “shall communicate his acceptance or rejection”. Under rule 138(12), if the party does not respond “within seventy two hours of the details being made available to him on the common portal, or the time of delivery of goods whichever is earlier”, it “shall be deemed that he has accepted the said details”.
The portal’s Reject option lists bills generated against the user’s GSTIN by date. The user ticks those to be rejected. The manual’s note measures the 72 hours “from the time of generation”. The rule measures it from when the details are made available, or delivery if earlier. The portal also flags bills raised by others on the user’s dashboard and by a daily SMS.
The 2025 changes, checked
| Change | Source | Status on 15 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Document date no older than 180 days | GSTN advisory, 17 December 2024, effective 1 January 2025; manual v1.7 | In force (system rule) |
| Extension capped at 360 days from generation | Same advisory; manual v1.7 | In force (system rule) |
| MFA mandatory for all users | Same advisory; portal notice of 28 March 2025 | In force from 1 April 2025 |
| Extension window 8 hours before or after expiry | Rule 138(10), third proviso (after expiry); manual and GSTN advisory of 1 January 2025 (before and after) | In force |
| Part A not editable after generation | Portal FAQ and manual | Long-standing; no separate 2025 advisory found |
| Ship-to GSTIN mandatory, ship-to locked on the IRN route, voluntary closure of bills | GSTN advisories of 9 and 17 June 2026, scheduled for 1 August 2026 | Kept on hold “until further notice” by GSTN advisory of 29 July 2026; the advisories and FAQs are being withdrawn |
Signing, and who is answerable
An e-way bill is not signed with a DSC or EVC. The generator is identified by the login: username, password and OTP. Each place of business may have up to ten sub-users, with roles assigned by the main user. The FAQ points out that a departing employee’s sub-user account must be frozen to prevent misuse. A bill generated through a sub-user is the registered person’s bill.
When something goes wrong
Goods moving without a valid bill, or on a bill whose Part B does not match the vehicle, are open to detention under section 129. Where a vehicle is detained for more than thirty minutes, the transporter may upload FORM GST EWB-04 under rule 138D. Goods in Transit: Inspection, Detention and Release covers both.
Courts have looked closely at detentions based only on an expired bill.
- Assistant Commissioner (ST) v. Satyam Shivam Papers Pvt Ltd (Supreme Court, SLP © No. 21132 of 2021, order of 12 January 2022). A paper dealer in Hyderabad sent goods to a buyer in the same city on 4 January 2020 by auto trolley. An anti-CAA rally blocked the road until 8.30 pm, and the next two days were a weekend. The goods were intercepted on 6 January, after the bill had expired. Tax and penalty of Rs 69,000 were collected. The Telangana High Court (2 June 2021) held that “no presumption can be drawn that there was an intention to evade tax” merely from non-extension. It set the levy aside with costs. The Supreme Court refused to interfere and raised the costs by Rs 59,000. It held that the State’s attempt to keep the questions of law open did not “give rise to even a question of fact what to say of a question of law” on those facts.
- Appollo Plywood Industries v. Assistant Commissioner of Revenue (Calcutta High Court, Division Bench, 2 August 2025). Goods travelled 1,095 km from Manipur to Raiganj. The bill expired at midnight, and the vehicle was intercepted at 3.10 pm the next day, about 90 km from the destination. A 200 per cent penalty under section 129(1)(a) had been confirmed. The Bench noted that the eight-hour proviso would have allowed extension up to 8.00 am and had not been used. It held that “transporting the goods without a valid e-way bill may result in an action” under section 129(1), “however, it is not in all cases, where the e-way bill had expired” that a 200 per cent penalty must follow. With no allegation of evasion and an unrebutted explanation (a political rally and bad weather), it reduced the penalty to Rs 25,000 as a “notional penalty”.
- Saahaj Milk Producer Co Ltd v. State of U.P. (Allahabad High Court, Writ Tax No. 251 of 2023, judgment of 27 February 2025). The facts involved an intra-State stock transfer on which the driver had stopped for three days at his village. The court quashed the penalty because no authority had found an intent to evade.
These cases do not make an expired bill lawful. Calcutta still imposed a penalty for the default. Each decision turned on an explanation the officers had not rebutted. Both state and transporter arguments therefore start from the times recorded on the portal: when the bill was generated, when it expired, when the extension window closed, and when the vehicle was intercepted.
What can be put right, and when
| Problem | Remedy | Window |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong Part A details | Cancel and regenerate | 24 hours from generation; not after verification in transit |
| Vehicle changed or broke down | Update Part B | Within validity, before onward movement |
| Delay in transit | Extend validity | 8 hours before to 8 hours after expiry; total life up to 360 days |
| Bill raised in one’s name wrongly by another | Reject | 72 hours from availability, or delivery if earlier |
| Goods not moved at all | Cancel | 24 hours from generation |
| Goods returned by buyer | New bill as “Sales Return” (portal FAQ) | Before return movement |
The procedure in summary
- Register on the e-way bill portal once with the GSTIN, enable two-factor authentication, and create sub-users with defined roles.
- Before movement, enter Part A from a document dated within 180 days, with HSN, value, parties and the PIN-based distance.
- Enter Part B (vehicle or transport document), or assign the transporter by ID and leave Part B to it within fifteen days.
- Carry the invoice or challan and the e-way bill or its number. Update Part B before any change of vehicle, and consolidate in EWB-02 where several bills share one vehicle.
- Watch validity: one day per 200 km (20 km for ODC and ship-legs), ending at midnight.
- If delay is unavoidable, extend through the present transporter between eight hours before and eight hours after expiry. The system caps total life at 360 days.
- Cancel within twenty-four hours if the goods do not move or the details are wrong. Reject within seventy-two hours a bill wrongly raised in one’s name.
The next guide covers special cases: job work, bill-to-ship-to supplies, SKD and CKD goods, exports and imports, rail, air and ship, multiple vehicles, exhibitions, and unregistered persons and transporters.