In brief
The conversion of a shipping bill or bill of export to claim fiscal incentives in the form of duty refund or credit scrip, etc. has been a challenge and involves time-consuming litigation, despite enabling provisions in the law and periodically issued guidance by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). This has been attributed to interpretative complexities and aspects related to examination norms.
As part of the continued focus on trade facilitation measures and automation to ease compliance burden on trade, in 2022, the CBIC notified Shipping Bill (Post export conversion in relation to instrument based scheme) Regulations, 2022 (earlier regulations), laying down the guidelines for the conversion of shipping bills or bills of export. However, keeping with the continued objective of facilitation through automation in the budget announcement, the CBIC has now notified1 the revised Export Entry (Post export conversion in relation to instrument based scheme) Regulations, 2025 (revised regulations), replacing the earlier regulations and covering certain key aspects based on stakeholder consultation with guidance.
In detail
The revised regulations, replacing the earlier regulations, will have the following key automation features:
- amendments under section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962.
- processing of provisional assessment in exports.
- re-transmission of relevant details post conversion to the concerned authorities
The revised regulations will be effective from 3 April 2025 with the following key features and facilitations.
- Enables conversion, i.e. amendment in the declaration made in the shipping bill or bill of export to any other one or more instrument-based scheme after the export goods have been exported, such as Drawback, RoDTEP or export incentive schemes notified under the Foreign Trade Policy 2023. The facility now covers all exports except under free Shipping Bills.
- The application needs to be filed with the jurisdictional Customs authorities at the port of export within one year from the date of clearance, i.e. the Let Export order given by the Customs Department (extendable by six months respectively by the jurisdictional Commissioner of Customs and Chief Commissioner of Customs on merit.
For exports entries before 22 February 2022, the one year is to be reckoned from the date of operationalisation of the revised regulations.
- The jurisdictional Commissioner of Customs, at her or his discretion, within 30 days of the application, on the basis of documentary evidence which was in existence at the time the goods were exported, may permit the conversion of export entry.
- The conversion is to be permitted subject to certain conditions or restrictions as specified and the payment of applicable fees. The conditions or restrictions, inter alia, are as follows:
- No benefit is availed of the instrument-based scheme from which conversion is being sought, or the same is reversed as being inadmissible on conversion;
- Prescribed conditions and obligations of the instrument for which conversion is being sought are met;
- No non-compliance or contravention relating to the filing of shipping bill or bill of export or otherwise including investigations is initiated under any law; and
- The shipping bill or bill of export for which conversion is sought relates to an instrument-based scheme, drawback, is for meeting prescribed export obligations or is a combination thereof.
- Amendment requests in certain fields of a shipping bill or bill of export (e.g. port of discharge, HSN, value, etc.) are to be allowed to be changed only with the approval of the Additional or Joint Commissioner of Customs.
- The Directorate General of Systems and Data Management to issue a suitable advisory for the implementation of the regulation.
The takeaways
The notification of the revised regulations with add-on features will hopefully streamline the conversion process and reduce litigation as well. This will enable the trade to reduce their compliance cost and also ensure that benefit, as applicable in law, accrues on merit to them and will thus support trade in their export initiatives in the current trade dynamics.
Sources
- Notification No. 21/2025-Customs (N.T.) read with Circular No 11/2025-Customs dated 3 April 2025
