Shipping Bill Format: Every Field, Explained
A shipping bill is printed in four parts, and most of the confusion about it comes from not knowing which part carries what. This is the whole document, field by field, with the one thing that matters for each field: where it is used again later.
What the document is
A shipping bill is the export declaration filed with Indian customs before goods leave the country, required by section 50 of the Customs Act, 1962. It is filed electronically on ICEGATE, and the PDF that ICEGATE generates after the declaration is accepted is the document everybody means by "the shipping bill". If you are new to the document, start with what a shipping bill is; this guide assumes you have one in front of you and want to know what each part of it means.
One print of the bill exists per shipping bill number. The copy you download from ICEGATE is the same document a customs house agent prints, so nothing here depends on who filed it.
Part I: the summary page
The first page answers most questions on its own. It opens with a header and continues in named blocks.
The header
- Shipping bill number and date. The number is a running serial. On its own it is not unique across India; together with the port code and the date it is. Every later record, the bank's EDPMS entry, the eBRC, the incentive claim, quotes all three.
- Port code. Six characters, "IN" followed by four, naming the customs station where the bill was filed. It is a customs code, not a UN/LOCODE; the eBRC filing asks for the same six characters. The port code directory lists every one.
- IEC and branch serial. The ten-character Importer Exporter Code and the branch number under it. The eBRC is generated under the same IEC.
- GSTIN. The exporter's GST registration. It is what links the shipping bill to the export invoice for the IGST refund.
- Counts. How many invoices, items and containers the rest of the document should contain. A bill that says three invoices and prints two has been cut short, usually by a download that stopped early.
Status and routing
The state of the bill inside customs: the assessment and examination route it took, the LEO status, and the EGM reference once the manifest is filed. This is the block that changes over the life of the bill; the status guide explains each state.
Exporter and consignee
The exporter's name and address as registered against the IEC, the consignee (the buyer or the party named to receive the goods), the country of destination, and the declaration line. The bank details sit here too: the AD code of the branch that will handle the realisation and the account the money is expected in. The AD code is seven digits and it has to be the same AD code the bank reports on the inward remittance; DGFT's own guideline warns the user when the two differ. The AD code guide covers how it is registered at a port.
The value summary
This block is the one an eBRC filing is built from, so it is worth reading slowly.
- Invoice currency and exchange rate. The currency the goods were sold in and the customs exchange rate applied on the date of filing, which is why a rupee value on the bill rarely matches the rupees the bank credits months later.
- FOB value, in the invoice currency and in rupees. The value of the goods free on board, which is the value customs, DGFT and the incentive schemes all work from.
- Freight, insurance, commission, discount and other deductions. Each printed separately, each in the invoice currency. When the sale is on CIF or CFR terms, freight and insurance are part of the invoice value and are backed out to reach FOB. When the buyer pays less than the invoice because of a commission or a discount, that is the figure that explains the gap between the invoice and the remittance.
- Total invoice value. The invoice amount as declared, the figure the bank expects to see realised.
Export promotion, manifest and equipment
The export promotion block shows the scheme amounts claimed on the bill as a whole: drawback, RoDTEP, IGST paid. The manifest block carries the vessel or flight, the rotation or flight number and the port of discharge. The equipment table lists each container with its number, size and seal. Below those sit the challan references, the annexure with the declarations the exporter ticked, and the process log.
The process log
A dated list of every step the bill has been through inside customs. The line that matters most is the LEO, the Let Export Order, because the LEO date is the export date for most purposes and the date from which the realisation period under FEMA runs. The LEO copy guide explains why that page is so often asked for on its own.
Part II: one record per invoice
A shipping bill can cover several invoices, and Part II prints one record for each: the invoice number and date, the purchase order and letter of credit references where there are any, the buyer, the invoice currency and the exchange rate, the invoice value with its own freight, insurance, discount and commission, and the terms of delivery. The invoice number here is the one the eBRC filing will carry, and the filing field for it is twenty characters long. An invoice numbered in line with Rule 46 of the CGST Rules, which limits the serial to sixteen characters, always fits; the export invoice format guide goes through that rule.
Part III: one row per item
Every item on the bill, as its own row: the HS code, the description, the quantity and unit, the rate, the value in the invoice currency, the FOB value in rupees, and the scheme columns, meaning the drawback rate and amount, the IGST paid, and the RoDTEP claim, where each applies. The item rows are what the incentive schemes are computed from, which is why an HS code typed wrong on the bill is expensive: the incentive guide covers what depends on it.
Part IV: the schemes
The declarations that support the scheme columns: the drawback and RoSCTL claims, any advance authorisation or DFIA licence the goods were made under, jobbing details, the single window declaration and its supporting documents uploaded through e-Sanchit, third party details when someone other than the exporter is paid, the manufacturer's details, and the RoDTEP and re-export declarations. Most exporters never read Part IV; the customs officer and the scheme processing do.
Where each field is used again
| Field on the bill | Used again in |
|---|---|
| Shipping bill number, date, port code | EDPMS entry at the bank, the eBRC, every incentive claim, the GST refund |
| AD code and bank account | Matched against the IRM the bank reports to DGFT |
| Invoice currency and total invoice value | The value the bank expects to realise; the currency of the eBRC |
| FOB value | The eBRC value, RoDTEP and drawback, the IGST refund base |
| Freight, insurance, commission, discount, deductions | Entered on the eBRC filing to explain a remittance smaller than the invoice |
| Invoice number and date (Part II) | The invoice reference on the eBRC; the GST invoice for the refund |
| HS code and item values (Part III) | Scheme computation, RoDTEP scrip value |
| LEO date (process log) | The export date; the start of the FEMA realisation period |
Source: the printed ICEGATE shipping bill; section 50 of the Customs Act, 1962; the eBRC field set on the DGFT eBRC page; the realisation period in the RBI Master Direction on Export of Goods and Services.
The fields that go wrong
Three fields account for most of the trouble that surfaces months later. A shipping bill number read with a digit wrong, because the print is small and the number sits next to the bill ID. A FOB value read from the rupee column when the filing asks for the invoice currency. And a deduction entered as a value when the bill printed it as information only, or the reverse. None of these fails at the time; they fail when the eBRC will not map to the remittance, which the mapping errors guide walks through.
The way to avoid retyping any of it is not to retype it. The free shipping bill extractor reads the PDF and returns every field above as a CSV, with the bill checked against its own counts and totals; inside the eBRC exporter app the same read fills the mapping fields directly. Shipping bill PDF to Excel compares that with the other ways of getting the fields into a sheet.