LEO Copy of Shipping Bill: Meaning and Uses

What Let Export Order means

A shipping bill starts life as a declaration. Under Section 51 of the Customs Act, 1962, where the proper officer is satisfied that the goods entered for export are not prohibited goods and that any duty and charges have been paid, they make an order permitting clearance and loading of the goods for exportation. That order is the Let Export Order, the LEO. The section also allows the order to be made electronically through the customs automated system on the basis of risk evaluation through appropriate selection criteria, which is how a bill can receive its LEO through the system rather than from an officer at the desk.

LEO is the hinge in the bill's life. Before it, the bill is a declaration that customs may still examine, query or amend. After it, the goods are cleared to load and the export is a real one. Everything downstream, from the carrier's manifest to the refund to the realisation of the payment, leans on the LEO and on the LEO date.

What the LEO copy is

ICEGATE issues a downloadable copy of the shipping bill at two stages, and it names them by stage. In the Download e-Copy widget on a logged in dashboard, the export side offers Shipping Bill (SB), the bill after assessment, and Let Export Order (LEO), the same bill after the Let Export Order. A third item, the gate pass for Let Export Order, is the gate document rather than the bill. Each row then offers two files, an Acknowledgement Copy and a Signed Document Copy, and when somebody asks for the LEO copy they almost always mean the signed one.

The route to it, including how long each download link stays live, is in how to download a shipping bill copy from ICEGATE. Once the PDF is on your desk, the free shipping bill extractor reads its number, date, port code, values and item lines into a spreadsheet, which is usually what the person who asked for the copy wanted from it.

LEO copy, assessed copy, exporter copy

The confusion is mostly a naming one. The assessed copy is the shipping bill as customs assessed it, and it is what a bank, a buyer or an internal file usually means by "the shipping bill". The LEO copy is the same bill carrying the order that permitted clearance and loading, so it is the copy that proves the goods were cleared to leave, and it exists only once the LEO has been given. A bill that has been assessed but not yet cleared has an assessed copy and no LEO copy.

"Exporter copy" is the older name. Paper shipping bills were prepared in several copies and each was named for who kept it, and the exporter copy was the one that stayed with the exporter. ICEGATE names its downloads by stage rather than by holder, so when somebody asks for the exporter copy, the useful question back is which stage they need: the bill as assessed, or the bill after LEO. If the point is to prove that the goods were cleared for export, they need the LEO copy.

What the LEO copy is used for

• Proof of clearance. The assessed copy proves what was declared; the LEO copy proves customs let it go. Anyone who needs evidence that the export actually happened, rather than that it was filed, wants this one.
• The LEO date, downstream. The date on the order is checked by the systems the bill travels to next. One of DGFT's own integration error codes for a shipping bill is 21, "Invalid LEO / LEO less than SB date": a bill whose LEO date reads earlier than its own filing date is a record DGFT will not accept. On the customs side, an EGM whose sailing date is earlier than the LEO date puts the bill into the manifest error queue under its own letter. Both are described in the shipping bill error code list.
• The realisation trail. The shipping bill is the document an inward remittance is eventually mapped to, and the certificate that records that mapping is the eBRC. The LEO copy is the version of the bill worth keeping in that file, because it is the one that says the export was completed at the customs end.

Where LEO sits in the bill's life

Filed, assessed, LEO, departure and the carrier's manifest, then transmission to GST, DGFT and RBI. LEO is the third of those, and the point after which the exporter's own corrections get harder. The whole sequence, and how to read the enquiry screen that shows which stage a bill is at, is in the shipping bill status guide, and the stage that follows it, the manifest, is in checking EGM status.

Frequently asked questions

What is the LEO copy of a shipping bill?

The LEO copy of a shipping bill is the bill as issued after the Let Export Order, the customs order under Section 51 of the Customs Act permitting clearance and loading of the goods for export. ICEGATE offers it as a separate download from the copy issued after assessment, and it is the copy that shows the goods were cleared to leave.

What does LEO mean on a shipping bill?

LEO stands for Let Export Order. Under Section 51 of the Customs Act 1962, where the proper officer is satisfied that the goods are not prohibited and that any duty and charges have been paid, they make an order permitting clearance and loading of the goods for exportation. The order may also be made electronically on the basis of risk evaluation.

What is the difference between the LEO copy and the assessed copy of a shipping bill?

The assessed copy is the shipping bill as customs assessed it. The LEO copy is the same bill after the Let Export Order, the order permitting clearance and loading of the goods for export, so it proves the goods were cleared to leave. A bill that has been assessed but not yet cleared has an assessed copy and no LEO copy.

Where do I download the LEO copy of a shipping bill?

Log in to ICEGATE, open the Download e-Copy widget on the dashboard, click Let Export Order (LEO), search by date range or by job number, and click the download link for the Signed Document Copy on the row. The customs broker who filed the bill can reach the same download.

Why does the LEO date on a shipping bill matter?

Because the systems the bill travels to check it. DGFT's integration error code 21 for a shipping bill means an invalid LEO or an LEO date earlier than the shipping bill date, and on the customs side an EGM whose sailing date is earlier than the LEO date puts the bill into the manifest error queue. Both stall the bill until the record is corrected.