Advance Filing of Bill of Entry - CBEC's Customs Manual 2025 - Customs

9. Advance Filing of Bill of Entry: 9.1 For faster clearance of the goods, Section 46 of the Customs Act, 1962 allows filing of Bill of Entry prior to arrival of goods. This Bill of Entry is valid if vessel/aircraft carrying the goods arrives within 30 days from the date of presentation of Bill of Entry. 9.2 Often, goods coming by container ships are transferred at intermediate ports (like Colombo) from mother vessel to smaller vessels called feeder vessels. At the time of filing of advance Bill of Entry, the importer does not know which vessel will finally bring the goods to Indian port. In such cases, the name of mother vessel may be filled in on the basis of the Bill of Lading. On arrival of the feeder vessel, the Bill of Entry may be amended to mention names of both mother vessel and feeder vessel. 9.3 Advance filing is mandated to facilitate pre-arrival processing and assessment of Bills of Entry (BE) by mandating their advance filing thus leading to significant decrease in the Customs clearance time. Since 29.03.2021, Importer is required to file a BE latest as per the time-limits provided in the table below: Table S.No. Customs Station Bill of Entry is Required to be Filed Latest by End of the Day of Arrival of the Vessel/Aircraft/Vehicle Bill of Entry is Required to be Filed Latest by the End of Day Preceding the Day of Arrival of the Vessel/Aircraft/Vehicle (1) (2) (3) (4) 1 Sea Port Imports consigned from following countries viz. 1. Bangladesh 2. Maldives 3. Myanmar 4. Pakistan 5. Sri Lanka Imports consigned from all countries other than those mentioned in column (3) 2 Airport All imports None 3 Land Customs Station (LCS) All imports None 4 Inland Container Depot (ICD) None All imports [Refer Circular No. 08/2021-Cutoms dated 29.03.2021] 9.4 Wherein the Bill of Entry is not filed within the time specified in Para 8.3 above and the proper officer of customs is satisfied that there is no sufficient cause for such delay, the importer shall be liable to pay charges for the late presentation of Bill of Entry at the rate of rupees five thousand per day for initial three days of the default and at the rate of rupees ten thousand per day for each day of default thereafter. However, the said charges may not exceed the duty payable in respect of that particular bill of entry. In cases, where the duty or any other charges is not payable, the said charges shall not exceed Rs.50,000/-. If there is a proper officer is satisfied with the reasons for delay, the said charges may be waived. Importer should not be penalized for delay happening due to system related fault. The proper officers ( Additional/Joint Commissioners) are advised to judiciously exercise powers conferred on them to ensure that the trade and stakeholders particularly the diplomatic community is not put to undue hardship and necessary relief, as applicable, may be provided to the importers in bona- fide cases. [Refer Notifications No. 26/2017-Customs (N.T.) dated 31.03.2017, No. 36/2018-Customs (N.T.) dated 11.05.2018, Instruction No. 12/2017-Customs dated 31.08.2017]