Chennai customs’ SCMTR help desk

Chennai customs (Preventive Commissionerate, Chennai-III) set up a help desk for SCMTR filing problems on 23 September 2026, by Public Notice 130/2026. A day later the same Commissioner wrote to every shipping line, the Chennai and Ennore steamer agents' association (CHENSAA) and the consolidators' associations (SICA and CAI) asking for one thing in particular: the Unique ID of every refused amendment. This page covers both documents, what they ask of a forwarder and of a line, and what they do not say.

It applies to vessels calling at the Chennai ports. Other ports have not published anything like it that we hold.

Who is it for, and what does it handle?

Everyone who files or depends on an SCMTR message at Chennai: "Liners/Shipping Agents/Consols/ Importers/CHAs and other stakeholders" (PN 130/2026, para 3). The notice says the problems reported are "particularly with respect to amendments", and the help desk is there to examine them and resolve them "in coordination with DG Systems", the directorate that runs ICEGATE's customs systems.

It does not change any filing rule. It gives you a named officer to take a problem to, and asks you to bring "complete and accurate details" with it.

Which officer do I contact?

The officer is chosen by vessel, not by who you are. The notice gives vessels to four pairs of officers by name; the fifth pair takes "all other vessels and consolidation work". So a forwarder with a console on a vessel in the table goes to that vessel's pair, and a forwarder with a console on any other vessel goes to pair 5.

The allocation names particular vessel calls as they stood on 23 September 2026. A vessel that arrives later and is not in the table falls to pair 5 unless the Commissionerate says otherwise.

What are their phone numbers and e-mail addresses?

As published in PN 130/2026:

Escalation: the head of the help desk, Shri Dinesh T, Joint Commissioner, on 044-29551124 or 9952790734. The Commissionerate's general address is scmtr-prevchn@gov.in.

My SAA or SCA was refused — what do I send?

The Unique ID of the refused message, straight away, to your vessel's officers. PN 130/2026 para 4: "In cases of rejection of SAA/SCA messages, the concerned Unique IDs shall be shared immediately with the respective officers", who take the matter up with "DG Systems/ICEGATE/NIC, as appropriate".

The Unique ID is the handle ICEGATE gives a transmission when it is uploaded — on the portal it is called the tracking ID. The acknowledgement carries it too, as uniqueId in its header — a long string that ends in the message name, such as …2026SACHM23 — and this platform shows it as Tracking id wherever it reads an acknowledgement. It is what lets DG Systems find your exact message; a bill number or a job number does not. See Identifiers and tracking.

What to put beside it, so the officer can act on the first message rather than asking back:

the vessel, its VCN and rotation number;the message and event (SCA from you; SAA from the line) and its job number and date;the master bill and the house bills concerned;the acknowledgement itself, with the error codes and text customs returned;one line on what the amendment was meant to do — "add three house bills to master …".

If the refusal came to the line rather than to you — which is the case for every SAA — the Unique ID is the line's to send. Ask them for it, or ask them to send it; the Commissioner's letter of 24 September makes that the line's job (below).

What did the letter of 24 September ask the lines to do?

The Commissioner of Customs (Preventive), Chennai, F.No. I/(22)/RPTS/83/2024-IMP, dated 24.09.2026, to all liners, with copies to CHENSAA, SICA and CAI. In short:

A meeting on 22 September 2026, chaired by the Commissioner, heard liners and consols on the difficulty of filing SAM/SAA/CSN.There, "while explaining the detailed procedure for inclusion of HBLs in MBLs, it was informed that, the existing MBL is required to be deleted (CSN deletion) and re-filed after incorporating the requisite HBL details, as per the procedure prescribed in ICEGATE Advisory 37/2026".Liners were told to send the Rejection Unique IDs of any technical error in that process at once. Only a few had arrived, while consols and importers kept reporting the problem.All liners are to work "all pending cases reported by Consols/Importers", and send the Unique IDs of any delete-and-re-file that fails. "Any failure to extend the required cooperation or any undue delay" in sending them "would be viewed adversely".

PN 130/2026 says the same to the lines in its own terms: each line filing SAA is to name a nodal person to scmtr-prevchn@gov.in, and lines "are also hereby required to extend their full support to the Importers/ Consols for the prompt and accurate filing of amendment messages".

For a forwarder this is leverage. If your house bills are waiting on a line's SAA at Chennai, the customs Commissioner has told the line, in writing, to process pending consol cases and report every failure. Quote PN 130/2026 para 4 and the letter of 24.09.2026 when you ask.

Is the letter's "CSN deletion" a new procedure?

We read it as the same step customs has already published, described in other words. Two things in the letter do not match the published advisories word for word:

It cites Advisory 37/2026. That advisory's only passage on adding house bills is its note 4 — the line adds them "through SAA (splitting of BLs)". The drop-and-re-add of the master is in ICES Advisory 38/2026 (Q1): the line's SAA "first drop[s] (delete[s]) the existing Straight BL line item and subsequently re-add[s] the Master BL configured as consolidated".It calls the step "CSN deletion". Advisory 38/2026 describes the drop as part of the line's SAA, and SACHM23 has no message that deletes a manifest. A CSN is deleted by the one who filed it — the forwarder, before the SAM (Advisory 38/2026 Q5), or the jurisdictional officer after it (Advisory 37/2026).

The letter does not say which filing is to be deleted, or by whom, beyond "the existing MBL". Where a line did file a CSN of its own for the master bill, that CSN may be what it means; where the master went onto the SAM as a straight bill with no CSN behind it, the only thing to delete is the line item, and that is Advisory 38/2026 Q1. Nothing here changes what an SAA built on this platform carries. If your case at Chennai does not fit either reading, it is exactly what the help desk is for — ask your vessel's officer which filing they mean, and keep the answer. The full sequence is on My console's house bills are not on the line's manifest.

Where are customs' advisories?

PN 130/2026 points to https://www.icegate.gov.in/advisories/scmtr as the place DG Systems publishes them, and tells filers to refer to them. The two that matter most for amendments are on this site in plain language: ICES Advisory 38/2026: the six FAQs, and Advisory 37/2026 in SCMTR at your port.

Related

My console's house bills are not on the line's manifest — what now?How do I amend a shipping line filing (SAA or SDA)?ICES Advisory 38/2026: the six FAQsReading an acknowledgement

This page is informational. It summarises Chennai customs' Public Notice 130/2026 (23 September 2026) and the Commissioner's letter of 24 September 2026. The officer allocation and contacts are as published on those dates and may change. It is not legal or customs advice; confirm anything that matters with your jurisdictional customs officer or ICEGATE.