(a) whether the Union Government has launched the e-way bill system;
(b) if so, the details and objectives thereof;
(c) whether the system crashed soon after the launch, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
(d) whether the Union Government has sought a report on the failure of the system from the States and other agencies, if so, the details thereof and the response received thereon, State-wise including Gujarat; and
(e) the corrective steps being taken thereon?
(a) and (b) Yes Sir. The e-way bill system has been introduced nation-wide for inter-State movement of goods with effect from 1st April, 2018 while the States were given the option to choose any date till 3rd June, 2018 for the introduction of the e-way bill system for intra-State supplies. Consequently, all the States have notified the e-way bill system for intra-State supplies, the last being the National Capital Territory of Delhi which introduced it with effect from 16th June, 2018. The objectives of e-way bill system are as below:
a) single and unified e-way bill for inter-State and intra-State movement of goods for the whole country in self-service mode,
b) enabling paperless and fully online system to facilitate seamless movement of goods across all the States,
c) improve service delivery with quick turnaround time for the entire supply chain and provide anytime anywhere access to data/services,
d) to facilitate hassle free movement of goods by abolishing inter-State check posts across the country.
(c) The e-way bill system was scheduled to be launched on 1st February, 2018 for inter-State movement of goods. However, intra-State e-way bill was also made mandatory by some States from 1st February 2018 which resulted in increase in the number of transactions on the portal. Due to limited server capacity, the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure of the e-way bill system could not handle the load and crashed within few hours of operation on 1st February, 2018. A total of 4.5 lakhs e-way bills could be generated that day.
(d) and (e) The Union Government deferred the introduction of the e-way bill system till 1st April, 2018. Further, the Government took various corrective steps in this regard viz., new Information Technology (IT) infrastructure including high end servers were installed to handle the increased load on the system. The upgraded system is capable of handling a peak load of 75 lakh e-way bills per day. As a result, the e-way bill system is now being successfully implemented since 1st April, 2018 across the country. As on 30th July, 2018, a total of 7,58,75,207 e-way bills for intra-State movement and 7,81,51,096 e-way bills for inter-State movement of goods have been generated on the common portal www.ewaybillgst.gov.in.