Regulatory updates - India

The proposed changes concerned: 

• Introducing and making 'Ship-to GSTIN' field mandatory in Bill-to/Ship-to and Combination transactions when generating an EWB.  

• Allowing usage of “URP” value in the Ship-to GSTIN field, if the delivery is done to an unregistered entity, e.g., customer or warehouse. 

• Introducing an optional EWB closure facility in the portal, aiming to allow suppliers, recipients, transporters and authorized entities to mark an EWB as closed following delivery of goods. 

Until further notice, taxpayers and service providers should not implement the previously proposed changes. No production environment updates are required, and all previously published advisories and FAQs will be removed from the GST Portal. 

Amendments to the e-way bill (EWB) system have been introduced via the GSTIN portal, as announced in the official advisory. To clarify the new requirements, GSTN issued two FAQs in July 2026 covering the mandatory capture of the Ship-to GSTIN in certain e-way bill scenarios and the voluntary introduction of the e-way bill closure facility.

The main changes are as follows:

• Introducing and making 'Ship-to GSTIN' field mandatory in Bill-to/Ship-to and Combination transactions when generating an EWB. The portal will not accept EWB if that field is missing in these scenarios.
• Allowing usage of “URP” value in the Ship-to GSTIN field, if the delivery is done to an unregistered entity, e.g., customer or warehouse.
• Introducing an optional EWB closure facility in the portal, aiming to allow suppliers, recipients, transporters and authorized entities to mark an EWB as closed following delivery of goods.

Detailed applicability for various flows

1. Generating IRN and e-way bill together: When the EWB is generated along with the IRN number, the Gstin field should be made conditionally mandatory wherever Ship-to details are provided. In addition, where the e-invoice schema includes Ship-to Legal Name and Ship-to Address, and EWB generation is required, Ship-to GSTIN must be provided.
2. Generating e-way bill using IRN: In the API used to generate EWB by using IRN, a new mandatory field “Gstin” has been added under “ExpShipDtls”, and an optional field “Ship to Trade Name” for the Trade Name has been made available.
3. In Bill-to/Ship-to transactions: If a GSTIN is entered in the Ship-to GSTIN field, the system will validate it and accept it only when it’s correct. Moreover, the GSTIN entered in the Ship-to GSTIN field cannot match the GSTIN entered in the Bill-to field, since distinct persons must be involved in such transactions.
4. Using “URP”: If the Ship-to GSTIN is unavailable, e.g., if the Ship-to party is unregistered or GSTIN does not apply to the transaction scenario, the value “URP” can be entered instead.
5. Export e-waybill transactions: For export EWB, ship details, including the GSTIN entered during IRN generation, can be replaced when creating the EWB using IRN. In export cases where no domestic registered Ship-to GSTIN applies, “URP” can be entered in the Ship-to GSTIN field.
6. B2B and SEZ Transactions: For B2B and SEZ transactions, the Ship details entered during IRN generation cannot be replaced when creating the EWB using IRN. If GSTIN was not provided during IRN generation, it can be added while generating the EWB by IRN, subject to the applicable validations. For older IRNs generated with the same GSTIN as Bill-To and Ship-To, the EWB by IRN API will generate a regular EWB.

Updates to the e-Invoice API, EWB by IRN API, and EWB Closure API are now available in the Sandbox environment.

Taxpayers have time until August 1, 2026, to align their systems with the proposed amendments before go-live.

On September 23, 2025, the GSTN issued an advisory note announcing new changes to the IMS. The changes are aimed at simplifying the taxation system and reducing the compliance burden on taxpayers.  

The changes announced are: 

• Pending action for specified records: Specified records can be kept in pending status for a limited time. Monthly taxpayers can keep records pending for a month, and quarterly taxpayers for a quarter. The due date for keeping records pending is calculated based on the date or tax period the supplier communicated the documents. 

• Declaring ITC reduction amount: Taxpayers can declare the amount of ITC availed and that needs to be reversed. This facility also allows taxpayers to partially or fully reverse ITC.   

• Option to save remarks: Taxpayers are now able to save remarks when taking rejecting or pending action on records. The remarks will be visible in their GSTR-2B for future reference and to suppliers for corrective action.  

These changes are effective from the October tax period.