E-Way Bill for Imported Cargo From Port to Warehouse

A container of bearings clears at a container freight station near Nhava Sheva at dawn, and by mid-morning the truck is parked at a roadside check with the driver holding a delivery order and a packing list. The broker assumed customs cargo needs no e-way bill. The importer's desk assumed the broker would raise one. Nobody had the bill of entry number in a form the officer could match to anything.

The fix is a leg-by-leg rule set: which hauls between berth, CFS, ICD, bonded warehouse and your own dock fall under a customs exemption, which ones need FORM GST EWB-01, and which fields of the bill of entry go into Part A. Teams that write those rules down stop guessing at the gate and stop losing a day of free time to an avoidable detention.

• Legs and fields covered: the exempt customs legs, Part A built from a bill of entry, consignment value when there is no supplier invoice, multi-truck lots, bonded moves and who raises each document.
• Worked material: a rupee valuation for a two-container lot and a small LCL lot, a US in-bond contrast in dollars, a sample JSON payload and a pre-launch checklist for a port-side import desk.

Which import legs need an e-way bill and which customs rules exempt

Cargo under customs control is outside the e-way bill net; cleared cargo on a public road is inside it. CGST Rule 138(1) applies to every registered person who causes movement of goods of consignment value above ₹50,000, and sub-rule (14) then lists the moves that need no e-way bill at all. Three of those clauses are written for import logistics.

Clause (c) exempts goods carried from a customs port, airport, air cargo complex or land customs station to an inland container depot or a container freight station for clearance by Customs. Clause (h) exempts goods under customs bond from an ICD or CFS to a customs port, airport, air cargo complex or land customs station, or between customs stations or ports, and any goods moving under customs supervision or customs seal. Clause (i) covers transit cargo to or from Nepal or Bhutan.

CGST Rule 138(14)(c) removes the e-way bill requirement for containers moving from a customs port to an inland container depot or container freight station for clearance, and clause (h) covers cargo under customs bond, supervision or seal; the first taxable road leg for most imports starts at the CFS gate after out-of-charge.

Filling Part A from the bill of entry instead of a supplier invoice

An import e-way bill quotes the bill of entry, not the overseas supplier's commercial invoice. The NIC mapping for transaction type Inward and sub-type Import allows only document type Bill of Entry, with the supplier side entered as another GSTIN or URP and the importer as the recipient. The commercial invoice from Hamburg or Shenzhen has no Indian GSTIN behind it, so it cannot carry the movement.

Rule 138A(1) settles the paperwork in the cab. Its second proviso, inserted by Notification 39/2018-Central Tax, says that for imported goods the person in charge of the conveyance must also carry a copy of the bill of entry filed by the importer and must indicate the BOE number and date in Part A of FORM GST EWB-01.

• Supply and sub-type: supply type I (Inward), sub supply type 2 (Import) from the NIC master codes.
• Document fields: document type BOE, the BOE number in the document number field (NIC allows up to 16 characters, alphanumeric with / and -) and the BOE date.
• Bill-from party: GSTIN entered as URP, state set to Other Country; NIC accepts code 96 or 99 and stores 99.
• Dispatch-from place: the address and PIN of the CFS or ICD where the goods were cleared, with the actual state code of that facility.
• Bill-to party: the importer's own GSTIN, matching the IEC holder named on the bill of entry.
• Distance: NIC says imports and exports must carry the actual distance travelled inside India, so the figure runs from the CFS, not from the foreign port.

{
  "supplyType": "I",
  "subSupplyType": "2",
  "docType": "BOE",
  "docNo": "4718260",
  "docDate": "06/11/2026",
  "fromGstin": "URP",
  "fromTrdName": "Overseas supplier (illustrative)",
  "fromStateCode": 99,
  "fromPincode": 400702,
  "actFromStateCode": 27,
  "toGstin": "27AAACX0000X1Z5",
  "toPincode": 421302,
  "toStateCode": 27,
  "actToStateCode": 27,
  "transactionType": 1,
  "totalValue": 3178440.00,
  "igstValue": 572119.20,
  "totInvValue": 3750559.20,
  "transMode": "1",
  "transDistance": "78",
  "vehicleNo": "MH46AB1234",
  "itemList": [
    { "productName": "Ball bearings", "hsnCode": 848210, "quantity": 9600,
      "qtyUnit": "NOS", "taxableAmount": 3178440.00, "igstRate": 18 }
  ]
}
/* Illustrative values for container A of BOE 4718260; GSTIN, PINs, distance and rate are placeholders.
   fromStateCode 99 = Other Country; actFromStateCode = state of the CFS.
   totInvValue = totalValue + igstValue. */

Read the BOE number exactly as the customs record shows it. A transposed digit does not fail the NIC schema check, because the field is free text, but it breaks the match an officer or your auditor makes between the e-way bill, the BOE and the IGST credit that later appears against that BOE.

ICD, CFS or port: where the e-way bill clock really starts

The validity clock starts when you generate the e-way bill, so generate it at the facility that releases the goods, after out-of-charge and before gate-out. Validity for ordinary cargo follows Rule 138(10), which our guide to e-way bills generated from an e-invoice IRN works through with distances; the import point here is only where the distance is measured from.

Port-side clearance at a CFS gives a short first leg, often under 100 km to a warehouse cluster. ICD clearance is different: the long rail or road leg from the gateway port to the ICD is covered by the customs exemption, and the taxable leg is the short haul from the ICD gate to your dock. Teams that raise the e-way bill at the port for an ICD-bound box create a document for a leg that needed none and that will expire before the cargo clears.

Air imports follow the same logic. A shipment moved from the air cargo complex to an off-airport CFS for clearance falls under clause (c); the van that carries cleared cartons to your warehouse needs Part A and Part B like any other inward movement above the threshold.

Consignment value when the only price document is a bill of entry

Use the IGST base from the bill of entry plus the IGST itself as consignment value, and write that convention into your desk procedure. Rule 138 Explanation 2 defines consignment value by reference to Section 15 and to the value declared in an invoice, bill of supply or delivery challan, including central, State, Union territory and integrated tax and cess charged. It does not spell out a separate import formula.

Because the definition expressly includes integrated tax charged, a value that leaves out the IGST paid on the BOE sits further from the rule's own wording. The difference rarely matters for a full container, which is far above ₹50,000 either way. It matters for small LCL and air lots, where one convention says no e-way bill is needed and the other says it is.

The two containers share one BOE of ₹48,60,000 assessable value, so the split follows the packing list: 9,600 bearings in container A and 6,400 in container B. The split totals reconcile to the BOE: ₹52,97,400 of IGST base and ₹9,53,532 of IGST. All figures are illustrative and the duty line stands in for whatever the BOE actually assessed.

Consignment value under CGST Rule 138 Explanation 2 includes integrated tax charged, so an import e-way bill built from a bill of entry should carry the IGST base plus BOE IGST; on a ₹42,000 assessable LCL lot, that convention lifts the Part A total to ₹56,002.80, above the ₹50,000 trigger.

Several trucks, one bill of entry: splitting the lot without duplicates

One BOE often covers more containers than one truck can carry, and the NIC system refuses a second e-way bill against the same document. The API notes say neither consignor, consignee nor transporter can generate duplicate e-way bills for one document. Plan the split before the first container leaves, not when the second truck is waiting at the gate.

For movement of lots in several vehicles, NIC's notes ask for a delivery challan for each vehicle listing the items it carries, with the last vehicle carrying the original document. The NIC mapping lists Inward with sub-type SKD/CKD/Lots and document types Bill of Entry or Delivery Challan, with the importer as recipient. That combination gives each truck its own Part A while every cab still holds the BOE copy that Rule 138A(1) demands.

• Challan per truck: number the challans from a series tied to the BOE, for example 4718260-A and 4718260-B, so the link is visible to an officer.
• Value per truck: carry the packing-list share of the IGST base and IGST on each challan, as in the worked table.
• Sandbox trial: try the exact sub-type and document combination against the NIC sandbox first, because mapping tables and validations change.
• Last-truck rule: decide which vehicle carries the original document and record it on the dispatch plan.

Bonded hauls: into-bond moves, ex-bond clearances and MOOWR units

An into-bond haul is exempt only if it actually runs under customs bond between customs stations or under customs supervision or seal; an ex-bond clearance always needs an e-way bill above the threshold. The customs paperwork for warehousing does not, by itself, settle the GST transport question, so the tax team should rule on each pattern once and write it down.

A container cleared on an into-bond bill of entry and moved from the port to a private bonded warehouse may travel with a customs seal intact or under escort, in which case clause (h)(ii) applies. If the custodian releases the container to the importer's trucker without seal or escort, treat the haul as needing an e-way bill and confirm the position with the jurisdictional officer. Our page on the bonded warehouse ex-bond bill of entry ledger covers the duty side of those moves.

Manufacturers operating under Section 65 face the same split between bonded and cleared goods. The MOOWR Section 65 guide explains how resultant goods are ex-bonded with a bill of entry and a GST invoice; the e-way bill for that clearance then follows the outward invoice, not the import document.

A detained container on the warehouse road: the incident trace

Most import e-way bill failures happen in the first hour after out-of-charge, because three parties each believe another one owns the document. The sequence below is invented for illustration, yet it mirrors what port-side desks describe again and again: the cargo is cleared, the truck leaves, and the gap only shows when an officer asks for paper.

1. 06:10, out-of-charge: BOE 4718260 for two containers is marked out of charge at a CFS near Uran; the broker emails the OOC copy to the importer's import desk.
2. 07:35, gate-out without Part A: container A leaves on trailer MH46AB1234; the broker's checklist marks "customs cargo, no EWB", and the importer's TMS has no task because the movement was never created in it.
3. 09:05, interception: a GST mobile squad stops the trailer about 40 km from the CFS; the driver has the delivery order, packing list and seal number but no e-way bill and no BOE copy.
4. 09:40, detention: the officer begins proceedings under Section 129 of the CGST Act; release under sub-section (1)(a) needs the owner to come forward and pay the penalty set by that clause.
5. Controlled replay: with a gate rule, the TMS creates an inward movement on the OOC event, the desk raises Part A from the BOE at 06:25, the trucker adds Part B at 07:20 and the CFS gate clerk checks the e-way bill number before releasing the trailer.

Compare that with the vehicle change workflow for an existing e-way bill, which deals with a document that already exists and needs its Part B updated after a breakdown or transhipment. The import failure is earlier and simpler: the document was never created because the hand-off from customs to GST had no owner.

Who raises it: the importer, the customs broker or the trucker

The importer owns the import e-way bill; the broker and trucker contribute data. Rule 138(2) puts generation on the registered person transporting the goods as consignor or as recipient, and Rule 138(3) shifts generation to the transporter when goods are handed to one and the registered person has not generated it. The importer is the registered recipient and the only party whose GSTIN sits in the bill-to field.

A broker can raise the e-way bill on the importer's behalf only through access the importer grants, so the importer still answers for its accuracy. Write that delegation into the broker agreement, including who fixes a wrong Part A and within what time, rather than discovering the gap during an interception.

For an import cleared at a CFS, the e-way bill on the NIC portal belongs to the importer as registered recipient under CGST Rule 138(2), while the broker supplies BOE data and the trucker supplies Part B; a gate rule checking 100% of trailers for an e-way bill number stops untracked departures.

US contrast: in-bond moves and no state transport-tax document

The US has no e-way bill, so this is a single-market obligation; the nearest US control applies before customs release, not after. Uncleared goods can move inland under an in-bond entry, and once goods are released there is no federal or state document comparable to FORM GST EWB-01 for the road leg to a warehouse.

• Entry types: 19 CFR 18.1(b) lists in-bond entries including immediate transportation (IT), transportation and exportation (T&E) and immediate exportation (IE).
• Electronic filing: paragraph (d)(2) requires the in-bond application to be transmitted to CBP through a CBP-approved EDI system.
• Delivery limit: paragraph (i)(1) requires delivery to CBP at the port of destination or exportation within 30 days.
• Arrival notice: paragraph (j) requires CBP to be notified within two business days after any portion of an in-bond shipment arrives.

The practical parallel for a global logistics team is this: the US control sits on uncleared cargo and the Indian control sits on cleared cargo. A playbook copied from a US operation therefore tends to miss the Indian leg that matters most, the short haul from the CFS gate to the warehouse.

What the NIC portal blocks and what your desk still decides

The portal enforces format and combination rules; it cannot tell whether a haul was under customs seal or whether the BOE number belongs to the goods on the truck. Put the portal's rules into your ERP or TMS so errors surface before submission, and keep people on the judgements that depend on customs facts.

Go-live checklist for import e-way bills at a port-side desk

Run the checklist below before the first live movement, then again whenever you add a new CFS, ICD or bonded warehouse to the network. Each line should have an owner and a piece of evidence, not just a tick, because an interception is the worst time to find out which assumption was untested.

Other inbound and outbound document guides sit in our logistics and supply chain hub. For a review of your port-to-warehouse paperwork, or a TMS gate rule keyed to the bill of entry, share your requirements through our RFP form, listing ports, CFSs and monthly BOE volume.