How to Differentiate Between “Bill To” and “Ship To” Addresses
Everyone who generates an e-way bill or issues an invoice must have heard a bill to ship to e way bill and must know in detail the distinction between ‘Bill To’ and ‘Ship To’ addresses.
Individuals involved in a transaction under the supply models in an e-way bill to ship to under GST:
- ‘A’ is the one who requested that ‘B’ send goods straight to ‘C.’
- ‘B’ is the individual who sends goods to ‘C’ on behalf of ‘A.’
- The recipient of goods is ‘C.’
Supplies and two tax invoices involved in the bill to ship to the e-way bill are
- Invoice -1, issued by ‘B’ to ‘A.’
- Invoice -2, issued by ‘A’ to ‘C.’
Case -1: E-way Bill Generation by ‘B’
You must fill the following fields in Part A of GST FORM EWB-01:
| 1 | Bill From | Details of ‘B’ |
| 2 | Dispatch From | Details of the place from where you dispatch the goods, could be the principal or other place of business of ‘B’ |
| 3 | Bill To | Details of ‘A’ |
| 4 | Ship To | Details of ‘C’ |
| 5 | Invoice Details | Details of Invoice-1 |
Case -2: E-way Bill Generation by ‘A’
You must fill in the following fields in Part A of GST FORM EWB-01:
| 1 | Bill From | Details of ‘A’ |
| 2 | Dispatch From | Details of the place from where you dispatch the goods. It may be the principal or other place of business of ‘B.’ |
| 3 | Bill To | Details of ‘C’ |
| 4 | Ship To | Address of ‘C’ |
| 5 | Invoice Details | Details of Invoice-2 |
Delivery at a Different Place
Under some conditions, the products you transfer has a delivery place other than the purchaser’s (registered address).
Here are some instances of specific situations in which a buyer may request delivery to a different place or a third party:
- The buyer wants delivery to one of his warehouses, which has a location elsewhere than his registered office.
- The buyer (trader) requires products to be delivered directly to one of his customers (third party) locations.
- Buyer requests delivery of products to a specially designated storage facility (cold storage, customs warehouse, etc.)
- Buyer requires delivery of products to a different place for an institutional customer to whom he has already sold the goods.
- The buyer’s client is a retail chain that requires the delivery of goods to multiple locations.
Under all of the conditions above, the ‘Bill to’ and ‘Ship to’ addresses on the GST invoice will differ. For example, a customer who purchases the items has his registered office as the billing address and shipping as another address.
This address is necessary when creating the e-way Bill for goods transfer. When creating the e-way bill, the person should provide the buyer’s GSTIN and the delivery location. The delivery location, not the billing location, should be where the products are to be delivered (in case the delivery location and the billing address are different).
Generating an E-way Bill: a Responsibility
Scenario 1
In this scenario, you have different ‘Bill to’ and ‘Ship to’ addresses, yet the delivery is to the same person with the same GSTIN.
Consider the following scenario: a buyer wants products and delivers them to one of his warehouses or storage facilities. In this case, the buyer transports products from the provider to a secondary location rather than the primary location.
Scenario 2
In this scenario, you have different ‘Bill to’ and ‘Ship to’ addresses, yet the delivery is to the same person with a different GSTIN.
Consider the following scenario: the goods are moved straight from the supplier’s location to the buyer’s client (third party).
To summarise, you must generate just one e-way bill to move goods to a different location of the same buyer. However, if the registered individuals buying the items and getting delivery have separate addresses, you must generate two e-way bills.
You must generate two e-way bills when the delivery location differs from the buyer’s state.
The e-way bill generation would complete the cycle of transactions, and taxes will change for inter-state transactions.
