Bill of Entry India: What It Is, How It Is Filed, What Every Field Means, and What Goes Wrong

Short answer: What is a Bill of Entry in India?

A Bill of Entry is the legal declaration an importer files with Indian customs under Section 46 of the Customs Act, describing the imported goods, their classification, value and the duty payable. It's filed electronically on ICEGATE, usually by a licensed customs broker, and must be filed before the end of the day before the vessel arrives for most sea cargo. There are three types: home consumption, warehousing and ex-bond. Since 2016, it has also carried the customs valuation declaration and the declarations needed by agencies such as FSSAI and plant quarantine, so one filing covers them all.

Types of Bill of Entry in India and When Each Is Due

Pick the wrong type and ICEGATE rejects the filing before anyone looks at the goods. There are three, still known in the trade by the colours of the old paper forms.

Bill of Entry filing deadlines

You can file up to 30 days before the expected arrival. The latest you can file depends on where the goods land, under Circular 08/2021-Customs.

If you miss the deadline without sufficient cause, late presentation charges apply: ₹5,000 a day for the first three days, then ₹10,000 a day. In practice, the answer is to file the moment the IGM details are available, not when the vessel is alongside.

How a Bill of Entry Is Filed on ICEGATE, Step by Step

This is the sequence a customs broker's operator actually follows on a job.

1.      Confirm the IGM. The shipping line or its agent files the Import General Manifest. You need its number, date and the line number for your bill of lading, because the Bill of Entry is matched against it.

2.     Classify every line and check what comes with it. Decide the 8-digit tariff item, the exemption notification if any, and the compliance requirements (CCR) for that code, such as BIS, FSSAI or a licence.

3.     Upload supporting documents to eSanchit. Invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin, licences and test reports go up as searchable PDFs, digitally signed. Each gets a reference number that's quoted in the Bill of Entry, so the officer finds the right document without asking.

4.     Prepare the Bill of Entry data. Either key it into ICEGATE's online form or generate a flat file from your customs software and upload it through the Remote EDI channel. Both are signed with a Class 3 DSC.

5.     Send the checklist to the importer. Most brokers share a draft, the checklist for the importer to approve before submission. This is the last cheap moment to catch an error.

6.     Submit and read the response. ICEGATE either generates a Bill of Entry number, which means it's filed and self-assessed, or returns an error that has to be fixed and resubmitted.

7.     Follow it through. Track RMS facilitation, any queries from the assessing officer, duty payment and out of charge on ICEGATE until the goods are released.

Steps 2 to 5 are where nearly all the effort goes, and none of them need a customs licence. XEMI's breakdown of where the time goes on a typical customs clearance job shows it minute by minute.

Bill of Entry Fields Explained: What Each Section Means and the Mistake That Breaks It

A Bill of Entry is long, but it has a simple shape. It moves from who is importing, to how the goods arrived, to what the invoice says, to what each line item is. Here's each section with the mistake we see most often in it.

The duty section is calculated by the system from everything above it. If the duty looks wrong, the error is almost always further up.

Fields that deserve a second look

Country of consignment. It decides some deadlines and some agency checks, and it's easy to fill by habit.

Unit quantity code. The tariff expects a standard unit for each item, such as kilograms or numbers. Declaring pieces where the tariff expects kilograms invites a query.

Currency and exchange rate. Enter the invoice in its own currency. The system converts it at the rate CBIC notifies, so converting it yourself first only creates a mismatch.

Description. CBIC's Circular 55/2020 asks for the generic and specific description, model, brand or UNBRANDED, and the manufacturer where anti-dumping duty applies. A faceless officer in another city sees only this text.

HS Code, Exemption Notifications and the Valuation (GATT) Declaration in a Bill of Entry

These three parts decide how much duty you pay, and they're where most reassessments start.

Where the HS code goes, and what it drives

Each item line carries its own 8-digit tariff item from the Customs Tariff. That single code decides the BCD rate, the IGST rate, any anti-dumping or safeguard duty, the import policy, and the CCR the system checks for. One invoice with five products means five lines with five codes, not one code for the whole consignment.

Codes also move. From 1 May 2026, Budget 2026 tariffisation moved many concessional rates from exemption notifications into the tariff itself and created new tariff items in chapters such as 13, 29 and 39. If your item master still holds last year's codes, check them.

How exemption notifications are claimed

A lower duty rate is claimed by entering the notification number and the exact serial number inside it, plus any condition number. Most general exemptions sit in Notification 50/2017-Customs, which has hundreds of serial numbers. The right notification with the wrong serial number is one of the most common reasons for a query. Where the exemption has a condition, such as an end-use certificate, the supporting document has to be in eSanchit with the Bill of Entry.

The valuation declaration, still called the GATT declaration

Rule 11 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 2007 requires the importer to declare full and accurate details of value. Older importers remember filing this as a separate GATT declaration form. Since CBIC's Circular 10/2016-Customs introduced the Integrated Declaration, the customs valuation declaration is part of the Bill of Entry itself, along with the forms once filed separately for FSSAI, plant and animal quarantine, the Drug Controller and wildlife clearance.

The valuation part asks, in effect:

• Are the buyer and seller related, and did that relationship influence the price?
• Are there royalties, licence fees or assists that should be added to the value?
• Does any part of the resale proceeds go back to the seller?
• Are freight and insurance included correctly?

A related-party import can be referred to the Special Valuation Branch for closer review. For goods identified under the CAVR Rules, 2023, the system also asks for extra value information. Answer these honestly and consistently. A valuation answer that changes from one shipment to the next with no reason is exactly what a risk system notices.

What Goes Wrong With a Bill of Entry, and How to Fix It

Problems show up at four points, and each costs more than the one before.

1. Rejected at submission

ICEGATE validates the filing before it generates a number. If something fails, you get an error instead of a Bill of Entry number. The errors trade guides report most often for Bills of Entry include a Bill of Entry type that doesn't fit the port, a customs broker code not registered there, IEC or branch details that don't match, an ex-bond filing before warehousing is complete, and missing container or port details.

The frustrating part is that a flat file rejection often doesn't say which field or which document caused it, so operators spend half an hour working backwards. Our guide to ICEGATE flat file errors covers why and how to stop them before upload.

2. Queried during assessment

If RMS sends the Bill of Entry to a faceless officer, doubts come back as online queries, capped at three per Bill of Entry. The usual triggers are a vague description, an HS code that doesn't match the technical literature, a notification serial number that doesn't fit the goods, or a value that's low compared with similar imports. Reply once, completely, with the supporting documents in eSanchit.

3. Held at the port

A clean assessment can still stop at examination if the goods don't match the declaration: different quantity, different model, a missing BIS mark. Our article on the document errors behind most customs holds walks through the six we see most.

4. Found after clearance

Once goods are out, correcting a Bill of Entry gets harder.

And keep everything. The 2018 regulations require the authorised person to keep the assessed Bill of Entry and the original supporting documents for five years.

Tired of finding errors after ICEGATE does? See how XEMI validates every Bill of Entry field before submission. See How It Works →

Bill of Entry Software India: How XEMI Prepares, Checks and Files Every Bill of Entry

XEMI is an AI-powered trade collaboration platform for importers, exporters, CHAs and freight forwarders. XEMI Clear, its customs automation module, takes over the parts of a Bill of Entry that don't need a licence, so your operators spend their time on the parts that do.

• The job builds itself from the documents. XI, XEMI Intelligence, reads the bill of lading, invoice, packing list and certificate of origin in any format and creates the job, with every field cross-checked against the other documents.
• Classification comes with its consequences. HSN 360 recommends the tariff item with a confidence score, along with the CCR, required declarations and current import policy for that code, and alerts you when a code changes.
• Errors show up at the field level, before ICEGATE sees them. Field-level and page-level indicators show exactly which value in which document needs correcting, instead of a flat file rejection after upload.
• The checklist gets approved inside XEMI. Importers and brokers comment, correct and approve on the same record, with every change timestamped.
• Filing happens without a portal login. DSC signing, eSanchit submission, document reference generation, checklist filing and Bill of Entry submission all run inside XEMI, with real-time IGM and Bill of Entry status from ICEGATE.
• Every Bill of Entry stays findable. The filed Bill of Entry and its documents sit in XEMI Vault for seven years, beyond the five years the rules require.

75 minutes to 11 minutes

That's the total customs workflow time per job, averaging 30 line items, on XEMI. CHA firms using XEMI have cut average job turnaround from 6 days to 2.

XEMI doesn't replace your customs broker's judgement on a difficult classification or a valuation dispute. It removes the typing, lookup and cross-checking around that judgement. And if you file fewer than five Bills of Entry a month, a careful broker and a good checklist may be enough for now.

For importers, XEMI Clear sits inside XEMI's import management platform, alongside tracking and landed cost. You can also read how XI, XEMI Intelligence, reads and checks trade documents.

Running a CHA team? See how XEMI takes a job from documents to a filed Bill of Entry in 11 minutes. Request a Demo →