EGM Status Check: What It Means and How to See It

What an EGM is

The Export General Manifest is the carrier's document, not the exporter's. Section 41 of the Customs Act, 1962 puts the duty on the person in charge of the conveyance carrying export goods: before the conveyance departs a customs station, they must deliver a departure manifest or export manifest electronically in the case of a vessel or aircraft, or an export report in the case of a vehicle. The manifest covers the number and the date of the shipping bills it carries, and the person delivering it subscribes to a declaration as to the truth of its contents. Failure to deliver it in time, where the proper officer is satisfied there was no sufficient cause for the delay, carries a penalty not exceeding fifty thousand rupees.

So the shipping line, the airline or their agent files it, and files it for the whole conveyance. Your bill is one line in a manifest that names every shipping bill on board. That is why a bill can be perfect and still show no EGM: the document that closes it out belongs to somebody else.

For cargo that starts at an inland container depot there is a second one. The goods move to a gateway port, and the manifest that matters at that point is the gateway EGM, filed at the port the cargo actually leaves from. ICEGATE has noted that gateway EGMs for many ICD shipping bills were filed manually, which is exactly how refunds sit unprocessed while everyone believes the paperwork is done.

Where EGM status appears on ICEGATE

ICEGATE's public enquiry services run without a login, and the shipping bill enquiry is where the EGM position shows. Three inputs do the work: the customs location, the shipping bill number and the shipping bill date. All three sit on the shipping bill itself, and if you are working through a stack of PDFs the free shipping bill extractor reads the number, date and port code out of each one. If the location code is the part you are unsure of, the Indian port code list has every sea port, airport, ICD, CFS and land station.

The result is a set of panels rather than one line, and two of them are the ones this guide is about: EGM Status, for the manifest filed at the port of departure, and Gateway EGM Status Enquiry, for cargo that started at an inland depot. The other panels, and how to read the whole screen, are in the shipping bill status guide.

There is a second place the EGM position surfaces, and it is the one that explains a missing refund. In your ICEGATE login, the GST validation status view shows the IGST response code for every shipping bill for which GSTN has sent data. Two of those codes are about the manifest: SB002, EGM not filed, and SB006, gateway EGM not available.

What each answer means

• EGM filed. The carrier has delivered the manifest covering your bill. On the customs side the bill is closed out, and on the GST side the refund clock can start, subject to the return being furnished.
• EGM not filed. There is no manifest against the bill, and on the IGST side the bill returns SB002. Nothing downstream moves until the carrier files it.
• EGM filed, in error. The manifest was delivered but failed a check against the shipping bill, so the bill sits in the EGM error queue carrying a letter code: a container number that does not match, a package count that does not match, a rotation number that is missing, and so on. A bill in that queue is not fixed by asking the carrier to file; it is fixed by an amendment. Every published letter, and who clears each, is in the shipping bill error code list.
• Gateway EGM not available. For depot cargo, SB006. The gateway EGM was either not filed electronically or is in an error of its own. A manually filed gateway EGM does not count.

Why an exporter should care about a document they do not file

Because the law makes the refund wait for it. Under rule 96 of the CGST Rules, the shipping bill is deemed to be an application for refund of integrated tax, and that application is deemed to have been filed only when the person in charge of the conveyance has filed the departure or export manifest covering the number and date of the shipping bills, and the applicant has furnished a valid return in FORM GSTR-3B. ICEGATE's own list of validations for the IGST refund names it in the same flat terms: "EGM is filed by the carrier".

The manifest also fixes the bill. A shipping bill cannot be amended once the EGM has been filed, so an invoice number or a GSTIN that is wrong on the bill is corrected on the GST side afterwards, through Table 9A of GSTR-1, rather than on the customs side.

What to do when it is stuck

• Not filed. Approach the shipping line, airline or carrier and ask for the EGM to be filed. Where ICEGATE returns SB002 or SB006, its own guidance is exactly that: approach the carrier to file it immediately.
• Depot cargo. Ask specifically about the gateway EGM, and ask whether it went electronically. Make sure the carrier lists the depot shipping bill in the EGM it files at the gateway port.
• Filed, in error. Read the letter. Where the EGM is wrong, an EGM amendment is requested at the service centre for the proper officer to approve. Where the shipping bill is wrong, the bill is amended instead. One letter, L, has no amendment route at all: the bill is taken out of the queue by an officer, so it goes to the EGM cell rather than to your broker.
• Filed, refund still not paid. The manifest was never the only gate. Read the IGST response code; SB003 is a GSTIN mismatch and SB005 an invalid invoice number, and neither is fixed by waiting on the EGM.

Once the manifest is in and the bill has moved on to DGFT and to RBI, the customs side of the story is over and the realisation side begins: the remittance against this bill has to arrive, be matched, and be certified as an eBRC. How that bill eventually closes in the RBI ledger is in how shipping bills actually close in EDPMS.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check the EGM status of a shipping bill?

Open ICEGATE's public enquiry under Services, Enquiry, Public Enquiries 2.0, choose Document Status and then Shipping Bill, select the customs location, enter the shipping bill number and date, and search. The result includes an EGM Status panel and a Gateway EGM Status Enquiry panel. No login is needed.

What does EGM status mean on a shipping bill?

EGM status tells you whether the carrier has filed the Export General Manifest for the conveyance that carried the goods on that shipping bill. Under Section 41 of the Customs Act the person in charge of the conveyance files it before departure, covering the number and date of the shipping bills. Until it is filed, an IGST refund on that bill cannot be treated as applied for.

Who files the EGM, the exporter or the shipping line?

The carrier. Section 41 of the Customs Act places the EGM on the person in charge of the conveyance carrying the export goods, so it is the shipping line, the airline or their agent. Where ICEGATE returns SB002, EGM not filed, or SB006, gateway EGM not available, its guidance is that the exporter should approach the carrier to file it immediately.

What is a gateway EGM?

A gateway EGM is the export manifest filed at the gateway port for cargo that started at an inland container depot and travelled to the port from there. For an IGST refund on a depot shipping bill it has to be filed electronically; ICEGATE's response code SB006 means the gateway EGM is not available, and a manually filed one does not count.

What should I do if the EGM is not filed for my shipping bill?

Ask the shipping line, airline or carrier to file the EGM, and for depot cargo ask about the gateway EGM specifically. If the EGM was filed but is in error, the shipping bill sits in the EGM error queue with a letter code, and the fix is an amendment rather than a fresh filing.