If your business ships goods to a location that is different from the billing address — a warehouse, a project site, a customer's branch — this advisory is directly relevant to you. GSTN has rolled out two changes to the e-Waybill portal, and one of them creates a new mandatory field that will break your EWB generation if you are not prepared for it.

Change 1: "Ship To GSTIN" Is Now Mandatory in Bill-To/Ship-To Transactions

This one requires immediate attention from businesses involved in drop-shipping, third-party deliveries, or branch-to-branch movement where the billing party and the delivery location are different.

Until now, the "Ship To GSTIN" field in Bill-To/Ship-To transactions was optional or inconsistently captured. Under the new GSTN Advisory dated 20 May 2026, it is now a mandatory data element at the time of e-Waybill generation.

The rule is straightforward:

If you are generating e-Waybills through an ERP system or via API integration, your template needs to be updated before this goes live in production. Leaving the field blank — which may have worked earlier — will likely result in an error or failed generation going forward.

Businesses running inter-branch stock transfers, dealers receiving goods on behalf of registered buyers, or exporters with third-party logistics arrangements should map this field immediately in their invoicing and EWB workflows.

Change 2: You Can Now Formally "Close" an E-Waybill After Delivery

This is a genuinely useful addition. The e-Waybill system has always had a gap: once goods are delivered, the EWB technically stays "active" until its validity expires. There was no mechanism to mark it as completed. That changes now.

GSTN has introduced a Voluntary e-Waybill Closure Facility — a way to formally close an EWB once delivery is done.

Who can close an e-Waybill?

• The Supplier
• The Recipient
• The Transporter involved in the transaction
• The Driver or any authorised person — provided their mobile number was registered for this purpose

How does it work?

For logged-in users (supplier, recipient, transporter), the "EWB Close" option now appears under the e-Waybill section of the portal. Closure can be done in two ways — by individual EWB number, or by the date on which the EWB was generated (useful for bulk closures).

For drivers or authorised persons who are not portal users, closure is available through the Search option on the e-Waybill Common Portal using just their mobile number. All active EWBs linked to that mobile number are displayed, and the authorised person can close the relevant ones.

One critical timing rule: An e-Waybill can only be closed on the same day of delivery or the immediately succeeding day. You cannot go back and close an EWB retrospectively beyond that window.

Why the Closure Facility Actually Matters

At first glance, this looks like a housekeeping feature. It is more than that.

The GST department has been building toward a data-driven audit ecosystem. An e-Waybill that is never closed, even after delivery, creates a data anomaly — it signals to the system that goods may still be in transit. Over time, as this data accumulates, it could trigger scrutiny on transit times, route deviations, or mismatches between EWB status and return filings.

Closing your EWBs post-delivery is currently voluntary. But establishing this as a standard practice now — especially for high-volume businesses — is good hygiene. It creates a clean transaction trail and reduces the scope for future department queries.

What You Must Do Before 15 June 2026

The advisory asks all stakeholders to update internal processes, ERP configurations, and user manuals — and to ensure compliance from the notified date of implementation. That date is effectively 15 June 2026 for system-level changes.

Do not wait for the portal to force the issue. A failed EWB at dispatch time is always more expensive than a ten-minute system update today.

CA Praneeth Thunuguntla | Thunuguntla & Associates | Income Tax & GST Advisory