Indian Customs Electronic Commerce or Electronic Data Interchange (EC/EDI) Gateway (ICEGATE) is a government portal that provides e-filings facilities to trade and cargo carriers and other clients from the Customs Department. ICEGATE links 15 broad types of partners with Customs EDI through message exchanges that lead to faster Customs Clearance and facilitates EXIM Trade.ndian Customs and Central Excise Electronic Commerce/Electronic Data Interchange (EC/EDI) Gateway or ICEGATE is a portal which offers e-filing services to trade and cargo carriers and such other clients of the Customs & Central Excise Department. As of today, there are around 8500 registered users.
Introduction
ICEGATE is an infrastructure project for the Department’s EC/EDI and data communication requirements. The Department offers services like Shipping Bills (export goods declaration), electronic filing of the Bill of Entry (import goods declaration), and related electronic messages between Customs and the Trading Partners using communication facilities (Email, Web-upload, and FTP) that are commonly used on the internet. The airlines and shipping agents file manifests utilizing this facility, whereas the custodians and cargo logistics operators communicate with Customs EDI through ICEGATE for cargo and logistics-related information. Moreover, data is exchanged between Customs and other regulatory and licensing agencies such as DGFT, RBI, Ministry of Steel, and DGCIS. The Export Commodity Database (ECDB) for the Directorate of valuation and The National Import Database (NIDB) are also serviced through ICEGATE.
Every electronic document and message that ICEGATE handles is processed at the Customs’ end by the Indian Customs EDI System, which has been running at 134 customs locations. The Department has started centralizing its infrastructure, and all customs locations have been shifted to converged infrastructure hosted at Data Centre by linking them through MPLS-based WAN.
The key pointers related to the ICEGATE platform are:
- ICEGATE is the infrastructure project that fulfills the department’s Electronic Commerce/Electronic Data Interchange (EC/EDI) and data communication needs. With the help of this facility, the department provides a gamut of services that include electronic filing of Bill of Entry, Shipping bill and related electronic services.
- ICEGATE also offers a host of other services such as e-payment, document tracking status at Customs EDI, online registration for IPR, IE code status verification, online verification of DEPB/EPCG/DES licenses, PAN-based data search and links to several other important websites relating to the Customs business.
- The ICEGATE also offers a 24X7 helpdesk facility for the trading partners.
All the electronic documents and messages that are handled by ICEGATE are processed at Customs’ end by ICES (Indian Customs EDI System). Statistics say:
- The ICES is running at 134 custom locations.
- ICEGATE serves around 6.72 lacs of importers and exporters.
- The portal is linked with around 15 type of partners working with the Customs EDI (electronic data interchange) for exchanging messages and facilitating faster clearance from Customs and consecutively expediting Export-Import Trade.
Advisories
There are two advisories released in April and May 2019.
Advisory in April 2019: As per the advisory released on 13th April 2019, ICEGATE users can now update their registered email ID through the Portal.
Advisory in May 2019: As per the advisory released on 3rd May 2019, Digital Signature is not required for registration on www.icegate.gov.in. IEC holders (Importer/Exporter) can now register at ICEGATE without Digital Signature. Registration is allowed with IEC and anyone GSTIN attached to it. Please choose one GSTIN carefully about the IEC.
Benefits ICEGATE offers
- ICEGATE portal facilitates e-filing of both the import or export declarations.
- This also allows the Customs to respond to exporters and importers after assessing shipping bills and bills of entry.
- The portal provides a sort of guarantee that the declarations filed through the digital signatures allocated by Customs, acting as a Certification Authority under the IT Act, 2000 will be not be made invalid.
The introduction of ICEGATE (Indian Customs and Central Excise Electronic Commerce Gateway) has helped Customs department in becoming more accountable and has helped the department in minimizing the complaints on delay in delivery of consignments from both, the exporters and importers.
Other Services
- Apart from e-filing, ICEGATE provides other services like e-payment, online registration for IPR, online verification of DEPB/DES/EPCG licenses, Document Tracking status at Customs EDI, IE code status, PAN-based CHA data and links to other essential websites/information regarding the Customs business.
- It provides a 24/7 helpdesk facility for its trading partners.
- For secure filing, the system uses digital signatures on the Bill of Entry and other documents and messages to be handled on the Gateway.
ICEGATE Registration
ICEGATE enables filing Bills of Entry, Shipping bills, and other documents. An individual has to log in to the ICEGATE portal and click on the registration link on the home page. The registration form appears on the screen, where the applicant has to enter the details to register in the Portal. Once enrolled in the Portal, the following transactions can be made.
- Exports
- Imports
- Import General Manifest (IGM)
- Export General Manifest (EGM)
- Consol Manifest
For ICEGATE member registration, the CHA/importer/exporter must complete the membership form enclosed in Annexure B online. To complete the registration procedures, the members must file and receive the documents electronically through the Gateway on a 24×7 basis.
Why register at ICEGATE?
For online filing of Bill of Entry, Shipping bills and other documents, one needs to get registered with ICEGATE
Authorized Banks
- State Bank of India
- Punjab National Bank
- Bank of India
- Indian Bank
- UCO Bank
- Union Bank of India
- Bank of Maharashtra
- Corporation Bank
- IDBI Bank
- Bank of Baroda
- Canara Bank
- Indian Overseas Bank
- Central Bank of India
- Vijaya Bank
Documents Filing Facility
All exporters/importers, Custom House Agents, airlines, shipping agents, and trade members can file their documents using this Portal. Presently, the facility to submit papers through service centers and floppy submission is enabled for trade members.
For RES Users-The RES package is available through the National Information Center Portal. The operation of the RES package, called the procedure to create B/E and S/B, is the same as filing on the ICEGATE. However, the submission of the documents varies from ICEGATE. The trade members who do not wish to use the RES package that NIC provides but desire to develop their software to create Shipping Bills/Bills of Entry for filing on ICEGATE may refer to the Message Implementation Guidelines given in the Portal.
For Non-RES Users
The trading partners have to generate their messages based on the messaging guidelines. These guidelines inform the trading partner about message composition, validation rules, and directory information. The message format given here is similar to the Message Implementation Guidelines. For better understanding, a few sample messages are provided in the guidelines. The generated file has to be mailed to the concerned Custom Houses.
Transmission Mechanism
The transmission mechanism to submit electronic and related messages to the Custom House is mentioned in Annexure A. Two options are available to the trade members for submitting the documents to the concerned Custom House using ICEGATE. The trading partners choose one of the options for their convenience.
Obtaining Digital Signature Certificates
Digital Signature Certificates are no longer required. However, DG Systems aims to implement the Digital signature in a message with the trade partners.
Simplified Auto Registration on ICEGATE
ICEGATE is the official web portal developed by the Government. It offers various facilities to importers and exporters. However, the regular ICEGATE registration requires a digital signature, PAN verification, and additional approval.
To simplify the ICEGATE registration and attract more importers/exporters to obtain registration on ICEGATE, a new simplified auto registration facility is made available. As per the simplified procedure, registration on ICEGATE can be obtained without Digital Signature Certificate and without uploading any additional documents.
Procedure for auto registration on ICEGATE
- Visit the site https://www.icegate.gov.in/index.html.
- Click on ‘Click Here’ under Simplified Registration.
- Provide the following information-
- Enter IEC (Import Export Code number).
- Enter GSTIN (Goods and Service Tax Identification Number).
- Enter Password (please note a temporary password will be sent from ICEGATE).
- Enter the Captcha and click Submit.
- A list of information and points to be taken care of while providing the data are tabulated hereunder-
| Information to be provided | Points to be taken care of while providing the information |
| Enter Your unique ICEGATE ID | ICEGATE ID should not exceed 25 characters. ICEGATE ID should not contain blank space. ICEGATE ID can contain alpha-numeric characters. ICEGATE ID should not contain special characters. |
| Enter Email ID | The email ID should not exceed 50 characters. |
| Enter new Password | The Password should contain a combination of numbers, unique characters, and different cases. |
| Confirm the Password | – |
- Enter Mobile OTP (OTP will be sent on the registered mobile number) and Enter Email OTP (OTP will be dispatched on the registered email ID).
- Click Finish.
Once the above six steps are clear, the importer/ exporter can log in with the ICEGATE ID and Password.
Further, it should be noted that the importer/ exporter can change the pre-registered email ID and mobile number. The same can be done before clicking Finish in Step 6. After mobile and email OTP verification, the importer/ exporter willing to change the mobile number or email ID should click on the ‘Click here’ option provided below the Finish button.
FAQs
Q: Does Officer still have the option to generate Rotation Number through ICES?
Yes, the option is also available with ICES for contingency reasons. In case of application for cancellation of Rotation number, the Shipping Line/Agent needs to visit Custom office.
Q: What is Entry Outward?
Entry Outward” is the permission granted by proper officer to the master of vessel to receive and load the export goods from the Exporter and proceed for its foreign journey. Entry Outwards is granted under Section 39 of the Customs Act 1962. Unless and until entry outward order is obtained, no export goods can be loaded in the vessel.
Q: What is the total size limit of documents which needs to be uploaded on eSANCHIT?
At one-time maximum 5 documents can be uploaded each of size 1 MB.
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