GSTN has suspended the implementation of changes to the e-Way Bill system, scheduled for August 1, 2026. Advisory No. 668 was released on July 29.
The cancelled package consisted of two parts. The first is the mandatory Ship-To GSTIN: when forming the invoice via the IRN API, it was required to specify the registration number of the actual recipient of the cargo, if there is data about it. For B2B and SEZ transactions, these details were recorded at the IRN generation stage and were not subject to change when creating the invoice; export operations were excluded from the requirement. The second is the voluntary closure of the invoice: confirmation of delivery on the day of receipt of the cargo or the next day, instead of the previous scenario when the document simply expired.
The logic of the changes was clear. The Bill-To/Ship-To scheme, where the payer and recipient are different, is widely used in dropshipping and three-way logistics, and fictitious invoices passed through it: goods were issued to a company in one state, and left for another. Ship-To-GSTIN closed this hole, closing the invoice completed the chain until the delivery was confirmed.
The deadlines have moved before. The launch was scheduled for June 15, then left on August 1 at the request of ERP, GSP developers and system integrators, who did not have enough time to finalize the API. Advisory No. 664 dated June 17 confirmed the new date, and detailed FAQ was released on July 2.
Now GSTN explicitly states that it is not necessary to change systems in a productive environment based on previous explanations. Clarifications from June 9 and 17 and FAQ from July 2 are being reviewed from the GST portal. Taxpayers, carriers, ERP and GSP providers operate according to the current rules.
What a business should do. Companies that have already finalized the ERP for Ship-To—GSTIN should leave the code in the test loop and not roll it out into production: a refund is likely, but the date is unknown. For those who planned the budget for integration in August, it is necessary to transfer expenses. For Russian suppliers shipping to India, the restriction did not apply to export operations before, and there are no changes for them.
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- India: from August 1, you will not be able to issue an invoice without Ship-To—GSTIN - an announcement of a requirement that has now been canceled
- India has opened a window for correcting turnover in GST — only until July 31 — the neighboring deadline of the same administrator
