Chandigarh,
The rollout of e-way bill system is turning out to be a boon for jobless computer professionals in Punjab, who are seeing a massive spurt in demand. As small transporters find it difficult to afford full- time computer professionals, they are relying on these professionals who are offering services at a nominal cost. These professionals have opened their small offices in the transport areas of the state.

Under the GST regime, e-way bill is required for inter-state movement of consignments worth more than Rs 50,000. The government rolled out e-way bill system on April 1, two months after the first attempt to introduce it could not succeed due to technical glitches. When it was initially rolled out on February 1, the GST portal had crashed.

“We are a small transporter and can’t afford to hire full-time computer professional. So we go to a nearby e-way bill service provider for the purpose,” said Rajinder Babbar, proprietor, Rajinder Tranport Service, Ludhiana.

Tript Singh, another transporter from Amritsar, said, “Initially, we were confused about the implementation of e-way bill as we didn’t have the required infrastructure and the volume of the business was also very less. But setting up of these types of service centres by computer professionals came as a respite for small transporters.”

This has also resulted in generating employment opportunities for the unemployed youth.

In Ludhiana’s transport area, there are over 25-30 service providers who have set up their kiosks for generating e-way bills.