Exports: filing an SCX, shipping bills and PCINs

On the import side a house bill and its paperwork line up one to one. On the export side they do not, and the field that absorbs the difference is the small coded one nobody reads twice: prior declaration.

How much of this is proven, and by what?

Two kinds of statement are on this page, and they are not equally strong.

What the published sources say — CBIC's clarifications to the trade, ICEGATE's answers and the message guide's Trade Scenarios Mapping Table. The S and B codes, the impossibility of N and C on an export house bill, one PCIN per shipping bill and the one-shipping-bill-one-B/L rule are all stated outright there.What customs actually did — and here the base is small: three exports customs accepted on 19 September 2026, and the refusals filed beside them. Every rule below that names a refusal code was seen on one of those refusals, and every "is accepted" was seen on one of those acceptances. Where a sentence rests on that base alone it says so ("as seen on…"). Three acceptances show what customs takes; they cannot show everything it would take, and they say nothing about bulk or liquid cargo, empty containers, or the TI and FT movements.

And a fourth acceptance, on 20 September 2026, with its acknowledgement in hand: one filing of three bills of lading — two straight bills and a consolidation of two shipping bills — accepted the day after the same three bills were refused. What changed between the two is set out under What did a refused export change to be accepted?. The platform's checks pass that accepted file with nothing to say, blocking or advisory.

One more fact, from 20 September 2026: customs' own public record confirmed an export filed as a straight bill — consolidated S, prior declaration S with its PCIN, cargo EX, movement TC, a foreign destination and port of receipt, and no transhipper — as accepted with a CSN issued. The checks described on this page pass that file clean.

Three more, found on customs' public record on 24 September 2026, each accepted with a CSN issued between 20 and 23 September, and each read line by line against the file the filer had checked here first:

A consolidation of more than twenty bills at Mundra — masters C/N, their shipping bill lines H with prior declaration S, and on some lines B, every line quoting a PCIN. Two of its masters carried no goods items of their own; their lines did.A consolidation at Chennai — one master C/N, one H/S line, three containers.A consolidation at Kolkata filed with its master "referenced only" — master R/N with no cargo type, no movement and no customs-location block, carrying just its reference, its totals and its container; twelve H/S lines under it, each naming its PCIN under Supplementary declaration rather than Previous declaration. See Can the PCIN go under Supplementary declaration?.

The checks pass all three. Until 24 September they blocked the Kolkata one on every line, as 159 — a rule that blocks a filing customs accepted is wrong, and it was changed that day.

Two of those, and the Mumbai exports of 19 September, carried T as the header's indicator — so T is accepted on an export, as it is on an entry.

And one on 27 September 2026 at a different scale: a shipping line's own export CSN for a whole vessel — 216 bills of lading in one SCX, 2.1 MB — accepted with a CSN issued. Most of its bills are the straight bills and consolidations above. Two shapes on it had not been seen accepted before:

A master C with prior declaration C, quoting a CSN — the line's bill pointing at the forwarder's own export CSN for it, with no house bills of its own.Foreign cargo transhipped out — cargo type TR, movement FT, prior declaration Y quoting a PCIN, and a consignor abroad with no IEC, PAN or PIN code. See Can foreign cargo transhipped out go on an SCX?

The checks pass it clean. A file that size is checked up to 3 MB — on the free check without an account, and on SCMTR JSON upload once you are signed in.

The same day, the published sources were read again for what they say about exports — CBIC's clarifications and its 2019 answers to the shipping lines, ICEGATE's FAQs and its table of which blocks and which CIN each kind of bill carries, the message guide, the published error list, and the shipping lines' own advisories to exporters. Where this page says "customs' own table" it means ICEGATE's Object Mapping for Different Scenarios workbook, the one CBIC's clarifications point filers to. Several questions turned out to have no published answer at all; they are marked as such below rather than guessed at. For bulk or liquid cargo, the same clarifications say the equipment identifier need not be a container number — any identification of what carries the cargo, such as a berth or tank number, will do — though no such export has been seen here.

How do I file an export CSN from start to finish?

Start the declaration with reporting event SCX (exit — cargo leaving an Indian port). There are two shapes, and both were among the exports customs accepted in September 2026. Pick yours by counting shipping bills.

Where a shipping bill has no house bill of lading of its own, its house line carries the shipping bill number and date as its bill number and date.

Then, on both shapes:

Type of cargo EX, movement TC for cargo leaving for a foreign port. Never LC or DT: EX + LC is not in the trade-scenarios table and is refused as 115.The destination and the port of receipt are the same foreign port — the cargo's final destination on the bill of lading, which on every accepted export seen is the port it is discharged at (the ports section below has CBIC's own scenario). An Indian destination is 286; the Indian port as the port of receipt is 365. The first port of entry and the port of acceptance are the Indian port you file at. The next port of unlading may be a transhipment hub that differs from the destination.The itinerary ends with the sea leg from your port to the foreign port. An inland leg in front of it — an ICD to the port by rail or road — was accepted, as seen on one of the September 2026 exports. A leg that starts and ends at the same port is 091 (the code list writes it 91).Each PCIN once. The same PCIN on a master and a house line, or on two house lines, is 383 and 384.Every house line lists its own containers — the master's boxes its cargo is in, with its share of packages and weight. A house line with none is 239 together with 381.The totals add up: packages on the document = the items' packages (709, and a blank item count adds nothing) = the containers' packages (221); a master's packages = its house lines' (225).Leave net weight out, or give a figure above zero — 0 is 053 (the code list writes it 53, Net Weight Can Not Be -Ve; a reply prints it with the leading zero).No transhipper block. None of the exports accepted in September 2026 carries one, and no export refusal seen so far has asked for one. That is an observation, not a published rule — customs' own table lists the block; see "Does an export need a transhipper?" below.Container weight is the cargo plus its packing, without the container's tare, and the load status has to be what the shipping line's manifest says for the same box (237).

The codes on this page, as the published list and a reply each write them:

Customs appears to check each master bill in two stages. This is an inference from how the September 2026 refusals were laid out, not something customs has published. The first stage — the shape and its reference, codes like 115 and 159 — stops everything else on that bill, and the reply then marks its other blocks "Successful" without having looked at them. Once a bill passes that stage, every content error is reported together. So fixing one code on a bill that failed the first stage can surface new ones on the next attempt. The guided steps check all of the above at once, before you send, and the last screen lists them as "What customs checks on an export".

Where do I start an export in the app?

On CSN filing, the card Export filing — CSN Exit (SCX) — "Cargo leaving India. Your shipping bills and their PCINs, step by step." It sits under Import filing — CSN Entry (SCE), and a band above the steps reads CSN Exit (SCX) — cargo leaving India, so you can tell which set of screens you are on without reading a field.

The steps are the same three as an import — the bill of lading with its containers, then each line under it, then review — but the words and the questions are an export's:

The first screen asks the shape: "How many shipping bills does this B/L cover?" with two choices side by side — "One shipping bill — straight B/L" ("Its PCIN goes on this bill. You fill the exporter, buyer and goods on the next page.") and "Consolidation — one line per shipping bill" ("Several shipping bills under this B/L. Each gets its own line with its PCIN; this B/L keeps its own details."). You can change your mind later: going to a consolidation copies what you had typed onto shipping bill 1 and moves its PCIN there; going back asks before it removes any line you typed on.The route is typed once, on the B/L. You give the foreign port of discharge; the port of receipt, the first port of entry and the port of acceptance are filled from it and from the port you file at. One question covers an inland start — "Comes by rail or road from an ICD first?" Tick it, name the inland depot and whether it came by rail or road, and the itinerary is written for you; a line under it reads back the Filed route in words.On a consolidation, each shipping bill gets a line. The line's screen opens with "Which containers is shipping bill … in?" — tick the B/L's containers this shipping bill's cargo is in, and type its share of the packages and weight in each. The master's totals are added up from the lines.A line with no house B/L of its own: tick "No separate house B/L — use the shipping bill no. and date", and the two fields above it become Shipping bill number and Shipping bill date.Each line asks "Does this line cover one shipping bill, or several?" — filed as S or B. It starts on one shipping bill, because these steps file one line per shipping bill. "Add another shipping bill under this house B/L" starts the next line with the same number and the next letter, the same date and parties; its PCIN, goods and containers are its own.Fields you cannot change say why. Cargo type reads "EX — this is an export."; the port of receipt reads "The same as the port of discharge."; a consolidation's master reads "N — the master names no shipping bill of its own; customs gives it an MCIN when it accepts the filing." They are locked because on an export there is no second right answer to type.Start from your documents. The first thing on the bill of lading step is "Fill this export from your documents", in three numbered steps:
The bill of lading — drop its PDF (or paste its text). It fills the bill's number, the parties from the boxes the bill labels Shipper, Consignee and Notify party, the containers with their seals and — where the bill prints a row per box — each box's own weight, the goods and the marks. Where the goods description names a shipping bill ("S.B. NO … DT …"), its number and date are kept for the next step. One PDF on a straight bill that does not read as a house bill is taken as this filing's own bill, and the panel says so; mark it "house bill" if it is one.Customs' record of the shipping bill — "Fetch from ICEGATE" asks ICEGATE's public shipping-bill enquiry by the customs location it was filed at, its number and its date, and shows what customs holds: the PCIN with its date, whether the let export order has been given, the packages and gross weight customs assessed, the port of discharge as its code, and some of its containers (customs' public record may not list every box; a saved ICEGATE login lists them all). One press fills every empty field — a weight in the unit you already chose; a field you already filled that customs' record disagrees with is shown side by side and left alone unless you tick it. Change the number, date or location afterwards and the old answer is put away until you fetch again. On a consolidation each shipping bill line has its own fetch.What is left for you — every field the filing still needs, one line each; press one to go straight to it. A bill of lading never carries a PCIN, and the app never guesses one: it comes from customs' record, or from the copies and enquiry below.
The last screen lists "What customs checks on an export" — eight lines, each either clear or naming what is wrong: each shipping bill's PCIN is named once; the cargo is going to a foreign port; the cargo type and movement are an export's; the voyage runs from your port to the foreign port; every line lists its own containers; the packages add up; the weights add up; the voyage totals match what you filed. It is the same set of findings that decides whether the filing can be sent, so a tick there never disagrees with the button.

If Continue will not light on a step, the blocking finding is shown above the button — on an export it is most often a line with no containers ticked.

Can two shipping bills share one container?

In the app, yes. Two lines tick the same container, each types its own share of the packages and weight, and the shares have to add up to what the B/L says is in the box — the arithmetic customs re-does as 221. The container picker names the sharing in words and adds the shares up under the table, so a share typed as the whole box is caught before it is sent.

This is how the app handles the packages and weight, not something seen accepted — and which load status such a box takes on an export is a separate open question, covered under "FCL or LCL on an export container" below. None of the exports customs accepted in September 2026 has two shipping-bill lines in one container, so whether customs takes the shape on an export is untested. It is how two import house bills share a box (containers and shared boxes), and nothing published says an export differs — but if you file one, read its acknowledgement with that in mind.

Where does a PCIN come from, and when?

From the shipping bill, not from your CSN — it exists before you file. PCIN stands for Primary Cargo Identification Number. On an import it is something customs gives you when it accepts a CSN; on an export it is the other way round: customs has already attached one to the shipping bill, and your CSN quotes it.

What the official sources say:

CBIC's published clarifications to the trade: the CIN is generated at goods registration, for every shipping bill, and the public shipping-bill status enquiry shows it.CBIC's 2021 SCMTR webinar: a PCIN is generated for every shipping bill and travels to the custodian with the let-export order (LEO) message — which is how the CFS or terminal stuffing your container comes to know it too.ICEGATE's SCMTR FAQ: in exports, one PCIN is the cargo of one shipping bill; an MCIN aggregates PCINs.

Where filers actually get it:

The LEO copy of the shipping bill. Shipping lines tell their customers to upload the let-export shipping-bill PDF precisely because it carries the PCIN (a carrier's advisory, not a customs document — but it matches what customs says above). Ask your customs broker for the final, post-LEO copy; a draft or checklist copy printed before goods registration has none.ICEGATE's PCIN enquiry. After signing in to ICEGATE: PCIN Enquiry (Exports) → PCIN Excel Based Enquiry. You upload a sheet of shipping-bill numbers and dates — ICEGATE's user manual says up to 500 rows, for shipping bills after 1 January 2025 — or search by container number. It returns the CIN, its CIN type, the ports, containers, packages, weights and the rotation number. (The manual names the sea carrier and sea agent as its users; whether every forwarder login shows the menu is not something we have confirmed.)"Fetch from ICEGATE" in the guided steps. Give the shipping bill's number, date and the customs location it was filed at (the B/L usually prints the first two), and the app reads the PCIN off ICEGATE's public shipping-bill status enquiry — the public enquiry on ICEGATE's own site, which needs no login. A shipping bill filed at an ICD or a CFS station is held at that location, not at the port. If customs' record shows no PCIN yet, the fetch says so: it is generated at goods registration and is usually there by the let export order — fetch again later.Never from the CSN number, and never by guessing. A PCIN cannot be worked out from anything; a wrong one is a refusal. A bill of lading never carries one.

How long is it? Twenty characters: the year, PC, two letters, fourteen digits — 26PCEG09010000000100 (an invented example). CBIC's 2019–2020 training decks describe an "18 digit" PCIN; every real PCIN and MCIN we have seen is 20, which is also the length the message guide gives the field. If your number is 18 long, check the copy you took it from before you file.

What does customs issue when it accepts an export?

This is what customs' own CIN table says (export, consolidated, previous declaration N → MCIN generated; export straight or house quoting a PCIN → nothing generated), and it is what customs' public record showed on 20 September 2026 for the exports accepted the day before. The MCIN is what the shipping line's departure manifest can then quote for the whole consolidation instead of listing every PCIN.

The acknowledgement says the same thing bill by bill. On an accepted filing of two straight bills and one consolidation, the reply named one new number: an MCIN against the consolidation's master. The two straight bills and both shipping-bill lines came back with no number of their own — they keep the PCINs they quoted. So if your first bill is a straight one, do not read "no number issued" against it as something missing; look at each bill's own line in the reply.

One oddity to expect in that reply: under each shipping-bill line customs listed the item and container rows of every line of the consolidation, not only that line's — six container rows where the line filed three. It is how the reply is printed, not a sign that anything was doubled.

What did a refused export change to be accepted?

One real case, September 2026 — three bills of lading in one filing, refused one day and accepted the next. Side by side:

Everything else stayed as it was and was accepted as it was: cargo EX, movement TC, the destination and port of receipt the foreign port, first port and port of acceptance the Indian port reported at, a one-leg itinerary from that port to the foreign one, every container FCL, no transhipper, the filer's own PAN as consolidator on the master and on every line.

Two things worth noticing. The refusal showed only 159 on the two straight bills, whose reference was missing, while listing six codes on the third, whose reference was there but used twice — so on those two bills nothing beyond the reference had been looked at, and a fixed 159 can be followed by codes you have not seen yet. (Here it was not: their contents were sound.) And where a shipping bill had no house bill of lading of its own, its line carried the shipping bill number and date as its bill number and date — and was accepted.

S or B on a line — and does a B line quote a PCIN or an MCIN?

S when the line refers to one shipping bill, B when several shipping bills are consolidated under it — CBIC's own words, in its published clarifications, which add that the bill of lading details must still be given because the shipping bill does not hold them.

Two things the sources do not agree on, and what real filings do:

Customs' CIN table says a B line quotes an MCIN. Every accepted B line we have seen quotes a PCIN, and customs' public record shows those filings accepted. We have never seen a B line quoting an MCIN, and nothing published says where a forwarder would get one for a group of shipping bills. So the checks here let either stand on a B line without a warning. On an S line — or a straight bill's master — anything but a PCIN is warned about, because there the table and practice agree (the codes customs' list has for it are 159 on a master and 161 on a line).Customs' object table asks a B line for very little — its reference, its previous reference, its containers and its totals; no transport document, no ports, no goods. That matches what was accepted: B lines whose transport document was empty went through, and customs' record simply shows their ports as "N.A.". An S line is asked for the transport document and ports as well, and we have not seen one accepted without them.

The guided steps file one line per shipping bill and start each on S; the longer discussion of one house B/L over several shipping bills is further down this page.

Can the PCIN go under Supplementary declaration?

Put it under Previous declaration. That is where the guided steps and the full form put it, and where every accepted export we have seen puts it but one. One acceptance is one specimen: it shows customs has taken a PCIN under Supplementary declaration once, not that it always will, so do not move a PCIN there on the strength of it.

That one is worth knowing about. A consolidation customs accepted on 22 September 2026 named every line's PCIN in the Supplementary declaration block (supRef) and left Previous declaration out. Customs took it and tied each PCIN to its own line: its PCIN enquiry, asked about those PCINs, names the bill of lading and the exact house bill each one belongs to — which it only does once an accepted filing has used the PCIN.

So the checks here read a line's PCIN from Previous declaration, or from Supplementary declaration when Previous declaration names none. A line naming its PCIN in either passes; a line naming it in neither is still told 159; and a PCIN used on two lines is still 383/384, whichever block each names it in.

Can an export's master be R, "referenced only"?

Yes — customs' own table has the row, and a filing in that shape was accepted. The Trade Scenarios table lists EX with consolidated indicator R, prior declaration N, and movement "not applicable". The accepted one (Kolkata, 22 September 2026) did exactly that: the master carried its bill of lading reference, its totals and its container, and no cargo type, movement, ports or goods; its shipping bill lines, H/S, carried all of that, each with its PCIN.

The guided steps offer it as the third choice on the bill step — "Shipping line’s B/L, referenced only — one line per shipping bill" — beside the straight bill and the consolidation. Choose it and the B/L keeps only its number, the shipping line's PAN (which you pick or type, as on an import), its totals and its containers; each shipping bill line asks for its PCIN, its parties and goods, and its own destination, since a referenced B/L carries no route — the accepted one sent its twelve lines to seven different ports. The steps put the PCIN under Previous declaration; a filing that names it under Supplementary declaration, as the accepted one did, is opened in the full form, where it is checked as customs checked that one.

Can foreign cargo transhipped out go on an SCX?

Yes — a shipping line's SCX accepted on 27 September 2026 carried eight such bills. Each was cargo type TR with movement FT, consolidated S with prior declaration Y, quoting a PCIN, and its consignor was a shipper abroad with no consignor code and no PIN — a foreign shipper has no IEC or PAN to give. The destination, port of receipt and voyage leg were an ordinary export's: a foreign port, reached from the port of filing.

The checks accept that combination without a word. TR on an exit with any other movement, or IM on one, still gets an amber note, because no accepted export on record shows it; and the exporter's code and PIN are still asked of an Indian exporter. Customs' own record of that filing shows the same: cargo type TR, movement FT on each of the eight bills. The PCIN each quotes reads …PCSE00… — the shape of a number issued on an accepted CSN rather than a shipping bill's …PCEG… (see identifiers and tracking) — so prior declaration Y most likely points at the cargo's own entry CSN. That last step is read from the number's shape; no published source says it.

What goes in destination, port of receipt, port of acceptance and next port of unlading on an export?

One caution. CBIC's scenario has cargo discharged at one foreign port and delivered at an inland place beyond it, and puts the inland place in the destination. Every accepted export we have seen ends at its discharge port, so we have not seen customs take an inland foreign destination — if your B/L has one and its code is refused, the discharge port is the value every accepted filing carries.

Does an export need a transhipper?

No accepted export we have seen carries one, and none has been refused for lacking it. Customs' own object table lists a transhipper block for straight and consolidated export masters and for S lines, without saying whether it is required or merely allowed; the message guide marks the block optional for an exit; and CBIC told the shipping lines in 2019 that the movement from an ICD or CFS to the gateway port is covered by the transhipper's own inland messages, not by the CSN. So leave it out. A transhipment bond with no transhipper PAN beside it is the half-filled case the checks point out: remove the bond, or give the transhipper's PAN with it. The same holds for foreign cargo transhipped out on your export CSN (cargo type TR, movement FT): none of the 36 such lines on file carries a transhipper, and one declared for the first time (S/N) was accepted without one in October 2026, customs' own record holding it so — SCMTR no longer asks for one on an export. If you built an export in the full form and gave it a transhipper deliberately, the app keeps it — and keeps that filing in the full form rather than opening it in the guided steps, which would not know what to do with it.

FCL or LCL on an export container — and what if two shipping bills share it?

The field means how full the container is — the message guide's definition — with FCL full, LCL part-loaded, EMP empty. When the shipping lines asked CBIC what to put there, the whole answer was "It is FCL/LCL".

What is known:

Every container on every accepted export we have seen is FCL.None of them is shared between two lines, so we have never seen what customs accepts on a shared export box.The shipping lines' departure manifests on record file a shared box LCL on every line that names it, and on the vessel's container list — so the app suggests LCL on a box two of your shipping bills share, and FCL on the rest. Suggested, not locked: change it if the line says otherwise.The check that bites is 237 — Load Status Not Match With Referred Load Status of CSN. The shipping line declares the same container in its departure manifest, and customs compares the two. Whatever you put has to be what the line puts.

What customs' own record shows (October 2026): exports with one container on several shipping-bill lines accepted both ways — FCL on the master with LCL on each shipping-bill line, and FCL on every row (two consolidations sharing one box, each line carrying its own share of the weight, the line's departure manifest FCL too). No customs document or carrier advisory says which is right; on imports the convention is LCL on each house bill and FCL on the master. If you share a box on an export, ask the shipping line what load status its manifest will carry for that container, and file the same — and read the acknowledgement with 237 in mind.

What is "container weight" — with or without tare?

Without. The CSN message guide labels the field as the container's verified gross mass but defines it as the weight of the cargo plus its packing, dunnage and bracing — no tare. So it is not the VGM figure on the weighbridge slip, which includes the empty container. (A different customs message — the one ports send — defines its own container weight with tare; if you have read that definition somewhere, it was not about the CSN.)

It was not always so. An earlier wording of the CSN guide counted the container's tare in, and customs struck that sentence out — the March 2025 edition still shows it as a deletion. So software built against the older guide, or a colleague who learned it then, may still add the tare. The current guide, and the one for the shipping line's manifest, both say no tare.

ISO tanks are filed with their tare in. On both accepted exports of ISO tanks we have seen (one filing of three bills of lading, and another of five tanks, September 2026), every container weight is the tank's gross as its waybill prints it — the tank's own tare plus its cargo — and the container weights add up exactly to the bill's gross weight. When a tank waybill prints TARE, NET and GROSS for each tank, the app offers each tank's gross and says so beside it; any other box printed with a TARE is offered its gross less the tare, the guide's own definition. Two filings are not a rule: whether customs would refuse a tank's net is not known — if your shipping line files the net, use theirs.

On a consolidation:

Each line gives its share of the cargo weight in each container it is in.The master's weight for a container is the sum of its lines' shares. On every accepted export consolidation we have seen, the two agree exactly, box by box.Customs is not known to refuse a weight disagreement. Its published cross-checks between your CSN and the line's manifest cover the package count, the number of containers, and each container's type, number, size, load status and shipper-owned flag — weight is not on the list — and one refused export whose boxes disagreed by a few hundred kilograms was told about other things and nothing about the weights. So on an export the app warns about a box weight that does not add up and does not block it; a package count that does not add up is still blocked (221, 225). Make them agree anyway: carriers ask for identical gross weight across the shipping instruction, shipping bill, house and master B/L, and a filer who averages a line's cargo across its boxes instead of typing each box's real share is how the disagreement usually arises.

Who files the export CSN — me or the shipping line?

Either may; only one can. ICEGATE's FAQ calls the CSN a facilitative measure — a forwarder may file it, or hand the details to the vessel operator to declare in the departure manifest — and says that once one party has furnished a bill of lading's details, nobody else can. In practice the shipping lines expect the forwarder to file and to post the CSN number, date and PCINs on their portal two to three days before the vessel; if you do not, they file at master level from the shipping bill and pass any penalty to you. The whole picture — cut-offs, the portal, the VCN, timing and penalties — is in exports: who files, when, and what the shipping line wants from you.

How do I file an SCX when one house bill covers several shipping bills?

It is a normal shape and it has its own code. Set the house bill's prior declaration to B.

CBIC answered this directly, in a published clarification to the trade about referencing shipping bills rather than re-keying their contents:

In the previous reference of HC, please give S when referring to one SB. If multiple SBs are getting consolidated, give B.

So the house consignment reference (HCRef) carries:

The MIG's own Trade Scenarios Mapping Table carries both, as export house-bill rows — EX + H + S and EX + H + B — each allowing cargo movement TI, FT or TC. Two independent sources, the clarification and the guide's table, say the same thing.

N and C are not available to an export house bill

This is the part that sends people looking for a workaround that does not exist. The mapping table marks EX + H + N and EX + H + C "Not Possible" — an export house bill always refers to something. The complete set of prior-declaration values it lists for an export house bill is:

If you reached for N because the cargo is fresh and were rejected on 118 — Invalid HC Combination of CargoMvmt + CargoType + Consolidated + Previous — this is why. "Fresh" is an import idea. An export consignment has a shipping bill behind it before the house bill exists.

Why a shipping bill is a PCIN

The reference you are giving is not the shipping bill number as such. ICEGATE puts it plainly:

In exports, a PCIN corresponds to cargo covered under a single Shipping Bill.

One shipping bill, one PCIN. So a house bill covering four shipping bills sits over four PCINs, and the mapping table's identifier column for every one of these export rows reads "PCIN of SB" — an identifier you declare, not one customs generates for you. Nothing new is minted for that record; the numbers already exist against the shipping bills.

Where to find them: the let-export copy of the shipping bill, or ICEGATE's PCIN enquiry for exports after signing in (older ICEGATE screens list it as the PCIN download enquiry, under Services → Enquiries → ICEGATE Enquiry Service) — both are described under "Where does a PCIN come from, and when?" above. See identifiers and tracking for how a PCIN is built and why it cannot be worked out from a CSN number.

The rule that runs the other way — and this one does block you

One house bill over several shipping bills is fine. One shipping bill spread across several bills of lading is not, and ICEGATE has been asked and has answered:

As per SCMTR design, one shipping bill can only be mapped to one BL/HBL. If there is any SB with multiple BL/HBL, trade may be asked to file separate SB for each BL/HBL.

There is no code for that shape because customs does not intend it to exist. If a single shipping bill's cargo genuinely moved out under two house bills, the fix is upstream in the shipping bill, not in the CSN: the exporter files a separate shipping bill per bill of lading. Nothing you can put in the declaration will make the one-to-many version pass.

The shipping lines say the same, and their wording moved during 2025. One line's advisory of September 2025 told exporters that each shipping bill links to only one bill of lading; by November 2025 the same line had added that several shipping bills — several PCINs — are acceptable under one house B/L or one master B/L. Both are consistent with customs' position; the second simply spells out the direction that was always allowed. Every one of these advisories adds: never reuse a PCIN across bills of lading. Separately, the manifest's split indicator is about one bill of lading spread over several manifests — it is not a way to put one shipping bill on two bills of lading.

The two facts are easy to blur into one because they sound like the same sentence read in either direction. They are not:

What else the record has to be

For an export house bill, whichever of S or B applies:

Type of cargo (locCstm.typOfCrgo) is EX.Cargo movement (locCstm.crgoMvmt) is TI, FT or TC. Not LC and not DT — no export row in the table offers either. See cargo type, movement and the combination customs checks.Consolidation indicator (HCRef.consolidatedIndctr) is H.The table lists the blocks a TI or TC row requires — the house previous reference, the transport document, the transhipper, location and customs, transport equipment and the package/weight totals. Customs did not enforce all of it on the exports it accepted in September 2026: as seen on those filings, a filing that leaves the transhipper out is accepted, and so is a house line whose transport document is empty. What the refusals beside them show it does enforce is the previous reference and the house line's own containers (239/381). Three acceptances are a small base — treat "empty is accepted" as seen, not as promised.

Because the previous reference is required rather than optional here, a B house bill with an empty previous-reference block fails on 172 — Previous Declaration is Not Mentioned in HC-Ref, even though the prior-declaration flag itself was set correctly.

My export CSN carries the shipping bill's number and date (sbNo, sbDt) — is that allowed?

Yes. Many filers' software writes the shipping bill's number and date beside its PCIN, in the line's previous reference (prevRef.sbNo, prevRef.sbDt) — on most export CSNs we saw in September 2026, from ten different filers, and customs accepted files that carry them. They are not in customs' CSN guide: customs reaches the shipping bill through the PCIN, which is the reference that counts. SCMTR.io keeps the two values exactly as your file has them, sends them unchanged, and shows them under "Also in the file" when you open the CSN. Filings made here do not add them, and do not need to.

What does each export refusal mean — 365, 115, 159 and 091?

One Kattupalli → Colombo consignment was filed several ways in September 2026. Four of the attempts were refused for the four reasons below, and a later one was refused only on its package count — so its shape is what customs wants. Read together they settle what the documents do not spell out, and the app now refuses each shape before it is sent:

The attempt that got through structurally: TC, receipt port and destination both LKCMB, a PCIN in the previous reference, one leg Kattupalli → Colombo by sea.

Other exports refused the same month add four more, each now checked before you send:

381, 383, 384 and 709 are in no published code list — they are known only from real replies, so their meanings here are read from customs' own wording and the filings that drew them. 365 is in the message guide's newer code table but not in ICEGATE's separately published error list; 053, 091, 115, 159, 221, 225, 239 and 286 are in both. Nothing published explains any of them beyond the one line quoted here — we looked.

Which PCIN goes in the one slot, when a house B/L covers several shipping bills

None of them has to share: file one house line per shipping bill. The previous reference holds one CIN type and one CIN number and does not repeat, and the published documents never say which PCIN belongs there when a house bill covers four. You do not need them to: give each shipping bill its own house line, each with its own PCIN. Where a shipping bill has no house B/L, its line takes the shipping bill number and date.

How the lines are numbered is a convention, not a rule. On the consolidated export customs accepted in September 2026, the lines under one house B/L carried that B/L's number, then the same number with a letter — HBL1001, HBL1001A, HBL1001B (invented numbers). That is one filer's practice on one accepted filing: it shows customs takes it, not that customs asks for it. The guided steps number a new line the same way and let you overtype it.

A single house line with prior declaration B and one PCIN was accepted too — again as seen on one filing that month, and consistent with CBIC's clarification above — but it leaves the other shipping bills unreferenced. Customs accepted S and B alike on a line naming a single PCIN, so neither is a refusal; one line per shipping bill is the shape that names every PCIN, and it is what the guided steps file. The wider context is in two companies, one master bill of lading.

The rest of this page — the B code, the impossibility of N and C, one PCIN per shipping bill, and the one-SB-one-BL rule — is stated outright in the sources and is not inferred.