57th GST Council Eases Road Freight with Fewer Inspections and a ₹5 Crore Prosecution Threshold

The 57th GST Council meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on October 8, 2026, has introduced significant reforms to the inspection of goods in transit, delivering material relief to India's road transport and logistics sector. Under the new recommendations, vehicles carrying goods can only be intercepted based on specific intelligence and with prior authorisation from an officer not below the rank of Joint Commissioner — effectively ending the practice of routine, random highway stops by state tax officials. Consignments moving across multiple states will be subject to checks primarily at their origin and destination points, rather than being repeatedly inspected at each state border they cross. Critically, inspection powers are to be restricted to officers from either the supplier's state or the destination state — transit states through which cargo merely passes will no longer have standing to stop, detain, or seize goods without specific grounds. Amendments to Sections 68, 129, and 130 of the CGST Act, 2017 are being proposed to codify these new e-way bill provisions. Beyond logistics, the Council also raised the prosecution threshold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore and reduced general penalty levels — moves that significantly reduce legal risk exposure for the broader business community. Transporters and logistics providers have long cited excessive transit checks, arbitrary penalties, and the corruptive friction of repeated inspections as a major source of dwell time, added costs, and supply chain unpredictability. This is particularly acute for high-value or time-sensitive cargo — electronics, pharmaceuticals, FMCG — that transits multiple states from production hubs to consumption centres. By shifting from physical, on-road enforcement to intelligence-led and system-based interventions, the government is moving toward a model that better balances compliance enforcement with ease of doing business.