Import Documents

and Procedure

Submitted by
Prateek Gandhi
 Contents
 Introduction
 Prohibited list
 Restricted list
 Categories of importers
 Custom clearance procedure for imported
goods
 Bill of entry
 Import documents
 Retirement of import documents
Import
An import order is a
commercial transaction which
is not only important to the
importer and exporter, but is
also concern to the respective
countries, since it affect the
balance of payment position
of both the countries.
 Basic requirements for
import of goods
 Any body intending to import goods for
commercial purpose has to submit an
application to the Directorate General of
Foreign Trade and obtain Importer and
Exporter Code (IEC) number.
 In the case of 100% EOUs / EPZs the
importer and Exporter Code (IEC) numbers
are allocated by the Development
Commissioner of Export Processing
Zone concerned. This number has to be
indicated in the documents filed with the
 Prohibited list
The import of the following four items in
India has been completely banned:
1. Tallow Fat;
2. Animal Rennet;
3. Wild animal including their parts and
products;
4. Unprocessed ivory.
Restricted list
Restricted items can be imported only
with licenses and only by actual users.
The import of items in this list are restricted
on the grounds of security, health and
environmental protection or because the
goods are reserved for production by small
and tiny enterprises, which are home-based
or village-based and which require low skills
and employ a large number of peoples.
Consumer Goods
All consumer goods, howsoever
described, of industrial, agricultural,
mineral or animal origin such as-
 Consumer electronic goods, equipments
and systems.
 Consumer telecommunication
equipments.
 Concentrates of alcoholic beverages.
 Wines (tonic or medicated)
 Cloves, cinnamon and cassia.
 Precious, semi-precious and
other stones
 Cubic Zirconia.
 Stones such as rough diamonds, synthetic
stones finished or unworked.
 Granite, porphyry, basalt, sand and other
monumental or building stone.
 Marble, travertine etc.
 Safety, Security and related
items
 Paper for security printing, currency paper,
stamp paper and other special types of
papers.
 Empty/discharged catridges of all
bores/sizes.
 Fire arms.
 Ammunition.
 Explosives.
 Communication jamming
equipments, mobile
 Electronic components for above,
including antennae, RF Power amplifiers,
noise generators.
 Acetic Anhydride.
 Seeds, plants and animals
 Animals, birds and reptiles.
 Stallions and broodmares.
 Plants, fruits and seeds.
 Insecticides and pesticides.
 Electronic items.
 Drugs and pharmaceuticals.
 Chemicals and allied items.
 Items relating to the small scale sector.
 Miscellaneous items.
 Special categories.
 Categories of Importers
 Actual User (Industrial):- Actual users (industrial)
means person who utilises the imported goods for
manufacturing in his own industrial unit or
manufacturing for his own use in another unit
including a jobbing unit.

 Actual User (Non-industrial):- Actual User (Non-

industrial) means a person who utilises the
imported goods for his own use in:-
 Any commercial establishment carrying on
business, trade or profession
 Any laboratory, scientific research and
development institution or hospital
 Any service industry.
Custom Clearance Procedure
for Imported Goods
Under the Ministry of Finance (Department of revenue), there are two
independent Boards of Revenue:-

 Central Board of Direct Taxes (for Income Tax, Wealth Tax, etc.)
 Central Board of Excise and Customs.
The procedure for customs
clearance in general for goods
imported
 Import Manifest
 Entry in the Import Department of
Custom House
 Presentation of bill of entry for
appraisal
 Clearance of goods
 Warehousing the Goods
 Import follow-up
1. Import Manifest.
As per the section 30 of the Customs
Act,1962, the persons in charge of
conveyance carrying imported goods
should hand over ,within 24 hours of the
arrival of the conveyance, an Import
manifest to the customs. The IGM Import
General Manifest contains the details
about shipper, consignee, number of
packages, kind of packages, description
of goods, airway bill or bill of lading
number and date, flight or vessel details
2. Entry in the Import Department of

Customs House.
On receipt of information regarding of the
arrival of the goods , the Importers or
their agents have to make an entry by
filling a bill of entry, in a prescribed
form in the import department of the
costume House.
 Bill of Entry
 Bill of Entry is a document, prepared by the
importer or his clearing agent in the
prescribed form under Bill of Entry
Regulations, 1971.
 When goods are imported in a particular
country, the importer has to pay the
necessary import duty.
 For this purpose , necessary information
about the goods imported must be given to
the customs authorities in a prescribed form
Presentation of Bill of Entry for
appraisal
After the bill of entry is noted in the import
department, the same should be presented
to the Appraising Counters along with the
following necessary documents :
 Import License,
 Exporter invoice
 A copy of Letter of Credit
 Original Bill of landing and its non-
negotiable copy.
 Two copies of Packing List.
 Certificate of Origin.
 Delivery order issued by shipping
company or its, agents.
 Freight and insurance amount certificate
if the import on FOB terms.
 A declaration from importer that he has
not paid any commission to agents in
India.
 Customs declaration.
If the above documents furnished by the
importer are found to be adequate for
acceptance of the declared value and
determination of classification and
acceptance of ITC Licence, the bill of
Entry is completed by the Assistant
Collector and sent to the Licence
Section with an order to the Dock Staff
for examination of goods before
clearance.
 Types of Bill of Entry

 HOME CONSUMPTION : Bill of Entry for Goods

Imported for Home Consumption (White coloured)
This kind of Bill of Entry is used for clearing
imported goods by paying customs duty at the
port.
 WAREHOUSING : Bill of Entry for Bonded Goods
(Yellow coloured) This kind of bill of entry is used
when no duty is paid on imported goods and
therefore, they are transferred to customs
recognised bonded warehouses.
 EX-BOND CLEARANCE: Bill of Entry for Ex-bond
Clearance for Home Consumption (Green
 Contents of Bill of Entry
 Name and address of the importer.
 Name and address of the exporter.
 Import license number of the importer.
 Name of the port/dock where goods are to be cleared.
 Description of goods.
 Value of goods.
 Rate and amount of import duty payable.
 Other relevant documents.
However, no bill of entry is
required in the following
cases:-
 Passenger’s baggage.
 Parcels.
 Mail bags and post parcels.
 Boxes, kennels of cages containing live animals or birds.
 Post parcels, ship stores in small quantities for personal use.
 Clearance of Goods
 After payment of duty (the original copy of
Bill of Entry is retained in the Customs
House ) the importer should obtain the
duplicate copy of Bill of Entry on which
order for examination of the goods is given
by Customs and get the goods examined.
 If the description of goods is found to be
correct, on the basis of declared and
accepted particulars, clearance of goods
is allowed by appraiser.
 Warehousing the Goods
 The imported goods can be warehoused at
the port of shipment without the payment of
duty by presenting a “Bill of Entry for
Warehousing” to the Bonds of department
along with a bond for twice the amount of
duty payable.
 Initially the facility is granted for 3 months,
which may be extended upto a period one
year.
 The warehoused goods can be cleared in
 Import Follow- up
 Once an importer is allowed to permit foreign
exchange out of the country he has an
obligation to import the permitted goods of
equivalent value in the country.
 If no goods or goods for lesser values are
imported, it would lead to leakage of foreign
exchange.
 Importer Export Code (IEC) Number:
 No person can import goods without
obtaining an Importer-Exporter Code(IEC)
 Documents required for
import of goods
 Bill of Entry
 Commercial Invoice
 Bill of Lading / Airway bill.
 Import License
 Insurance certificate
 Purchase order/Letter of Credit
 Certificate of origin
Bill of Entry
Bill of entry is one of the major import
document for import customs clearance.
As explained previously, Bill of Entry is the
legal document to be filed by CHA or
Importer duly signed. Bill of Entry is one of
the indicators of ‘total outward remittance
of country’ regulated by Reserve Bank
and Customs department. Bill of entry
must be filed within thirty days of arrival of
goods at a customs location.
Commerical Invoice
Invoiceis the prime document in any
business transactions. Invoice is one of the
documents required for import customs
clearance for value appraisal by concerned
customs official. Assessable value is
calculated on the basis of terms of delivery
of goods mentioned in commercial invoice
produced by importer at customs location.
 Bill of Lading / Airway bill
 BL/AWB is one of the documents required
for import customs clearance.
 Bill of lading under sea shipment or
Airway bill under air shipment is carrier’s
document required to be submitted with
customs for import customs clearance
purpose. Bill of lading or Airway bill issued
by carrier provides the details of cargo
with terms of delivery. I have discussed in
detail about Bill of Lading and Airway bill
separately in this website. You can go
through those articles to have a deep
Import License
Import license may be required as one of
the documents for import customs
clearance procedures and formalities
under specific products. This license may
be mandatory for importing specific goods
as per guide lines provided by government.
Import of such specific products may have
been being regulated by government time
to time. So government insist an import
license as one of the documents required
for import customs clearance to bring
Insurance certificate
Insurance certificate is one of the
documents required for import customs
clearance procedures. Insurance
certificate is a supporting document
against importer’s declaration on terms of
delivery. Insurance certificate under
import shipment helps customs
authorities to verify, whether selling price
includes insurance or not. This is required
to find assessable value which
determines import duty amount.
Purchase order/Letter of
Credit
Purchase order is one of the documents
required for import customs clearance. A
purchase order reflects almost all terms
and conditions of sale contract which
enables the customs official to confirm
on value assessment. If an import
consignment is under letter of credit
basis, the importer can submit a copy of
Letter of Credit along with the
documents for import clearance.
 Retirement of Import Documents
After shipping the goods the overseas supplier
prepares the necessary documents as per the
terms of contract and L/C and hands them over to
his bank for their onward negotiation to importer in
the manner as specified in the L/C. the sat
normally contains bill of exchange, commercial
invoice, bill of lading , packing list, certificate of
origin, marine insurance policy etc.
For the retirement of documents, the importer is
required to submit following documents to his
bank:
 A letter authoring his bank to credit the
equivalent Indian rupees to value of documents
Retirement of Import
Documents
Loading of goods and receipt of
shipment Advice
On loading of goods the overseas supplier
dispatches the shipment advice to the
importer informing him about the shipment
of goods. The shipment advice contains
invoice number , bill of lading airways bill
number and date, name of the vessel with
date, the port of export, description of
goods and the quantity and the date of
 Acceptance of the bill of exchange.
Bill of exchange accompanied by the above
documents is known as the documentary
bill of exchange. It is of two types
1. Documents against payment(Sight
Drafts): In case of sight draft , the drawer
instructs the bank to hand over the
relevant documents to the importer only
against payment.
2. Document against acceptance:
(Usance Draft) in case of this document
References
 https://www.aacb.com/benefits-of-importing-and-
exporting/
 https://howtoexportimport.com/Import-General-
Manifest-IGM--112.aspx
 https://howtoexportimport.com/Is-Customs-House-
Agents-CHA-required-to-be-appoint-139.aspx
 https://howtoexportimport.com/Retirement-of-Import-
Documents-4626.aspx
Thank You