SCMTR glossary

A plain-language glossary of the terms you'll run into when filing under India's Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations (SCMTR).

SCMTR

Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018 — rules issued by India's Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) under the Customs Act, 1962. SCMTR replaces the older paper-oriented Import/Export General Manifest (IGM/EGM) process with a set of structured, machine-readable electronic messages filed through the ICEGATE portal.

ICEGATE

The Indian Customs EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Gateway — the official portal through which shipping lines, freight forwarders, consolidators, and other trade stakeholders submit customs filings, including SCMTR messages, and receive back structured acknowledgements.

SCMTR JSON

The file every SCMTR message travels as: one JSON document per filing — a CSN, a SAM or SDM, or the ACK customs sends back — named the way ICEGATE requires (…_DEC.json for what you file, …_ACK.json for the answer). Filers say "the JSON" or "upload json". In this app, SCMTR JSON upload is the drop target that takes any of them: drop the file and it works out which it is.

ACK (acknowledgement)

Customs' answer to one upload: the file whose name ends in _ACK.json, emailed by ICEGATE to the address the registration is under. It says Accepted (with the CSN number and date, for a CSN) or Rejected with an error code for each problem, and it answers the upload it names — so a corrected file sent again gets an ACK of its own. See Reading an acknowledgement from customs.

CSN (Cargo Summary Notification)

The house-level cargo declaration filed by freight forwarders, NVOCCs (Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers), and consolidators. A CSN references a Master Consignment (the bill of lading filed by the vessel operator) and adds the finer-grained detail — individual shippers, consignees, goods descriptions, and equipment — that sits underneath it.

Consolidators still use the EDI 1.5 names for it: the CGM (Console General Manifest) — "Console General Manifest (CGM) or CSN" — and the console split-up or House BL filing, the splitting of a master bill into its house bills. It is the same filing: since EDI 1.5 was phased out on 20 August 2026 the consol manifest is the CSN, and in this app it lives under CSN filing.

SAM / SDM (Sea Arrival / Departure Manifest)

The vessel-level manifest a shipping line or its agent files under SCMTR — SAM for cargo arriving into India, SDM for cargo departing. A CSN doesn't stand alone: it always references a SAM (or SDM), the same way a house consignment sits underneath a master consignment. Checking a SAM's status tells you whether the manifest your CSN depends on has landed and been accepted — it does not show your own CSN's acceptance status, since that's a separate, house-level filing.

Shipping line filing

This app's name for the SAM / SDM side of SCMTR (the SACHM23 message, with its amendments SAA / SDA and the SEI / SDN notices) — the filing the shipping line or its steamer agent makes for the whole ship, as against the consol agent's or NVOCC's CSN. It is not the IGM: the IGM is the record customs raises at the port, and its number is the rotation number. But it is what took the place of the line's IGM / EGM filing, which is why filers still say "the shipping line files the IGM" and speak of the IGM cut-off — the line's deadline for taking your CSN into its SAM. Shipping line filing in the header is where a SAM or SDM is opened, checked, corrected and uploaded.

Master Consignment vs. House Consignment

A Master Consignment is the top-level bill of lading a shipping line or vessel operator files, covering an entire container or shipment moving on a vessel.A House Consignment (or "house bill") is what a freight forwarder or consolidator files underneath a master consignment, when they've combined cargo from multiple individual shippers into one container. Each house bill carries its own consignor, consignee, and goods detail.

Reporting Event

Every SCMTR message declares why it's being filed via a reporting event code:

Which fields are mandatory, optional, or not applicable on a given filing depends on which reporting event it is — an amendment (SCA) and a fresh entry filing (SCE) don't require the same information.

The carrier's manifest message uses a different set of six, and you will hear these quoted by a shipping line rather than file them yourself:

IGM (Import General Manifest)

The manifest record customs raises at the Indian port for a vessel's call, carrying a line for each master bill of lading and a sub-line for each house bill under it. Its number is the same value as the vessel's rotation number. It is not an SCMTR message and it is not your CSN: it comes into existence at or near arrival, long after a CSN is filed, and it is what a Bill of Entry is checked against. That timing gap is why a shipment can be accepted under SCMTR and still have no IGM — see When the Bill of Entry cannot find the manifest.

Entry inwards

Customs' permission for a vessel to begin discharging at an Indian port, applied for by the carrier with an SEI message just before arrival. Two consequences worth knowing: it is roughly when the IGM becomes available, and it is where a manifest amendment stops being self-service: after it, ICES Advisory 37/2026 has the amendment approved by the jurisdictional officer, while the message guide's errors 373/374 read as a flat refusal — customs has not said which the system does. See SCMTR at your port.

VCN (Vessel Call Number)

The number a port issues for one call of one ship at that port — a four-character port code, the year, then six digits, such as NSA12026081299 — and the value a CSN carries as its conveyance reference (cnvnceRefNmbr). ICEGATE's FAQ calls it the Voyage Call Number; it is the same thing, and CBIC's own wording is that it is "a unique number assigned for every voyage of any vessel by the respective port of call".

So it belongs to one call at one port, which has three consequences. It changes when the ship does: a vessel substituted near the ETA arrives under a new IMO number and a new VCN, which is why a VCN picked early is re-checked against customs' list before you file — see I prepared the filing early. A ship working several Indian ports on one rotation has a different VCN at each of them, so the one to file is the call at the port your filing reports to — see which port goes in which field. And it is spent on that arrival: the same ship's next call gets a new one.

Three numbers it is not: a carrier's voyage number off the bill of lading (629W), the rotation number, and the IGM number. See Is the VCN the same as the IGM number, or the rotation number?.

In this app, My VCNs in the header lists a page per VCN your filings and files have named — the port, the VCN and its rotation number side by side, never merged — and VCN search looks any ship's calls up by name, IMO number or VCN. See What is a VCN page?.

Conveyance reference number (cnvnceRefNmbr)

The CSN's own name for the field that carries the VCN — the message guide defines it as identifying "a journey of a means of transport, for example voyage number, flight number, trip number (Assigned by Port, Airport)". If a form, a colleague or an error message asks for a "conveyance reference", the VCN is what it wants.

It is stated once per filing, above all the master consignments, so every master and house bill on one filing shares it. It is mandatory on SCE, SCX, SCD and SCC, and optional on SCA and SCU — where the voyage was settled by the filing being amended. See What accepted CSN filings actually carry.

Rotation number

The port's second number for a vessel's call, registered when the port registers the rotation for that arrival. Customs' public vessel-call enquiry returns it beside the VCN, with the date it was registered — which is the plainest evidence that one call carries both.

The IGM number is the same value, under the name the manifest side uses, so a carrier's "rotation", "rotation number" and "IGM number" all mean one number. None of them is your VCN, and none of them goes in the conveyance reference: see Is the VCN the same as the IGM number, or the rotation number?.

CSN Number, and CIN (MCIN / PCIN)

Two different numbers, both issued by customs when a CSN is accepted, and often run together in conversation:

The CSN number is the filing's own reference — seven digits, with a date beside it. It arrives in the acknowledgement at decRef.csnNmbr and csnDt, and it is what an amendment or deletion quotes to say which filing it is changing.The CIN (Cargo Identification Number) identifies the cargo, not the filing — a 20-character code, MCIN for a consolidated master bill or PCIN for a straight or house bill, returned per consignment. It is what later declarations of the same cargo quote: a line's manifest referring to your CSN, a transhipper's inland manifest, a Bill of Entry.

Which one a form or a counterparty wants follows from what they are doing: changing your filing, the CSN number; building on your cargo, the CIN. Customs' public record of accepted filings returns the CIN and, since September 2026, the CSN number and date as well — which is how a fresh filing sent from SCMTR is now marked accepted without waiting for the email. Keep the acknowledgement all the same: it is customs' own file, the only one that carries a rejection's reasons, and the one anyone outside will ask to see.

Authorised person (authPrsn)

The block in every SCMTR message that says who is filing. Three fields: the submitter type (sbmtrTyp — ANC for a forwarder, NVOCC or console agent, ASC for a shipping line, ASA for its agent), the submitter code (sbmtrCd — the filer's registered code under SCMTR, which is PAN-based, written bare), and the authorised representative code (authReprsntvCd — the ten-character PAN of the person authorised to sign for that entity, also bare). The MIG's own wording for the last is simply "PAN of authorised person". It is normally the same PAN as the submitter code, but a filing where the two differ is ordinary when the signatory is not the registered entity. It is not the consolidator PAN, which sits on each consignment and names the party to the bill rather than the filer — see What accepted CSN filings actually carry.

Equipment

In SCMTR terminology, "equipment" generally means shipping containers — identified by container number, type, load status (full container load vs. less-than-container load vs. empty), and seal information.

Container bond (CG bond)

The bond a shipping line or container agent gives customs so its containers can enter India without duty, on the promise that they will be re-exported. It is one bond per company for the whole country. The carrier's manifest debits it for each container that arrives and it is credited back when the container leaves. A container still in India after 180 days needs an extension. It is the BOND NO printed beside the Agent Code on ICEGATE's container details, and it is not the transhipment bond a CSN asks for. See What is the BOND NO on the ICEGATE tracking page?

B/L (Bill of Lading)

The transport document issued by a carrier acknowledging receipt of goods for shipment. SCMTR filings reference both the master B/L (issued by the vessel operator) and, where applicable, house B/Ls (issued by a freight forwarder or consolidator to individual shippers).

Consolidation indicator

A code on each consignment saying what kind of bill it is — straight, consolidated, house, master and so on. It is a legal characterisation of the document, so a wrong value is worse than a blank one.

Published code lists name straight (S), consolidated (C) and house (H), but real forwarder import filings use a different pairing: H on the house bill, R on the master above it, and M on a master bill filed with no house bill under it. See "What accepted CSN filings actually carry" for the evidence behind that. Exports use the published letters: a straight bill is S, a consolidation's master is C and each line under it H.

CBIC's own training material glosses the four letters it uses, and the glosses are worth having because they say who issued the bill:

Previous declaration

The second coded letter on every consignment, read together with the consolidation indicator. CBIC's glosses: N — no previous declaration; Y — an MCIN (or PCIN) generated earlier is being referenced; C — a CSN is being filed quoting a previous CSN; B — shipping bill to be referenced. The message guide's combination table adds S for an export bill that refers to one shipping bill, keeping B for several consolidated under one house bill. The pair decides which number customs issues and which you must quote — see every reference number and, for exports, filing an SCX.

HS Code

The Harmonized System code — an internationally standardized numeric code identifying the type of goods being shipped, used for customs classification and duty assessment worldwide, including in CSN item-level declarations.

Consignor / Consignee

The consignor is the party sending the goods (the shipper); the consignee is the party receiving them at destination. Both are declared with name and address detail at the house-bill level of a CSN filing.

DPD (Direct Port Delivery)

An Indian customs facilitation under which an accredited importer takes its containers straight from the port terminal, rather than the box first moving to a container freight station for de-stuffing and clearance there.

It is a clearance and delivery arrangement, not a field in the CSN. No block asks whether a consignment is DPD. What the message does carry is where the cargo goes and how it moves — locCstm.firstPrtOfEntry, destPrt and nxtPrtOfUnlading for the places, and locCstm.crgoMvmt for the movement, which is LC for local clearance, TI for domestic transhipment to an ICD, TC for international transhipment onward to a foreign port, and DT or FT for domestic or foreign transit. A consignment cleared at the port of arrival is local clearance whether or not the importer is using DPD; one railed inland to an ICD is a transhipment or transit movement to that ICD.

So there is no "DPD filing" to produce and no DPD-specific sample to follow — file the ports and the movement code that describe what actually happens to the container.

ITP (International Transhipment) — and the other ITP

In the trade and at the custom house, ITP is International Transhipment: moving imported goods on to a place outside India under section 54(2) of the Customs Act. CBIC extended the facility from FCL to LCL cargo through four designated ports in Circular 14/2007-Cus, and JNCH Public Notice 16/2007 implements it at Nhava Sheva, where it calls the boxes "International Transhipment (ITP) Containers". So "we file ITP shipments" means transhipment cargo bound foreign.

In a CSN that is cargo type TR with cargo movement TC, and the destination port is the foreign port the cargo is going to. See Cargo type, movement and the combination customs checks. The containers move from the port terminal to the CFS under the custodian's bond — Public Notice 16/2007's "custodian-cum-carrier bond filed by the custodian" — which is the number the transhipper block asks for.

Confusingly, ITP is also the file name of an entirely different thing: NIC's ICES 1.5 Import Transshipment message (CFCHI51), which a CFS files through a value-added network. That message is not filed here and is not yours to file. If someone asks you for "an ITP JSON" they mean that one — see Who else files against your cargo.

SMTP (Sub-Manifest Transhipment Permit) — and the other SMTP

The gateway port's permit for moving manifested cargo inland, and not a thing a CSN carries: the message has no field for a transhipment permit number. It is raised from the carrier's manifest — CBIC Circular 46/2005-Cus: the "Sub manifest Transshipment Permit (SMTP) portion of the IGM itself will be treated as a request for transshipment" — and quoted afterwards in the inland station's own ICES messages: the ICD's local IGM (SACHI41), the ICD custodian's container arrival (COCHI02), and a CFS's Import Transshipment (CFCHI51). None of the three is yours to file. For an ICD movement you declare IM + TI, the ICD's code, the second itinerary leg and the transhipper block, and nothing else — see Where the cargo goes after the gateway port.

And, as with ITP, the three letters do double duty: ICEGATE's own abbreviation list expands SMTP as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the e-mail channel for sending a signed filing in. Which of the two is meant is usually settled by whether the sentence is about cargo or about a file.

POR / POL / POD / FPOD (the bill of lading's port words)

Four abbreviations the bill of lading uses and the CSN never does:

POR — place of receipt. Where the carrier takes the goods over from the shipper.POL — port of loading. Where they are loaded onto the vessel.POD — port of discharge. Where the vessel lands them.FPOD — final place of delivery (also written "place of delivery"). Where the carrier's carriage ends under the bill: a port, an ICD or CFS, or an inland door.

Liner and forwarding paperwork names ports in that vocabulary. The CSN uses none of those words, which is why a B/L in front of you and a form on screen can seem to be asking about different journeys. They are not. This is the mapping for an ordinary import:

Is destPrt the FPOD? For an import, in most filings, yes in effect — but the two are defined differently, and the difference is what bites. The MIG calls destPrt "the Code of Port indicating Customs clearance": for import cargo, the port of destination or the custodian code of the CFS or ICD. So it is the delivery end expressed as a customs location — a port, ICD, CFS or SEZ code — not the commercial delivery place. Where a B/L's FPOD is a door, a town or a warehouse with no customs code, destPrt is not that address; it is the customs station where the goods are finally cleared. And on export or transit cargo the field is not a delivery place at all: for TR it is the last port of departure in India. For EX the MIG words it the same way — the last port from which the goods leave India — but customs refused an Indian port there as 286 in September 2026, and the exports it accepted that month name the foreign port of discharge as both the destination and the port of receipt, with the Indian load port in the first port of entry and the port of acceptance (corrected 2026-09-20; see exports: filing an SCX, shipping bills and PCINs).

prtOfReceiptCdd — "the place at which the goods have been or are to be received by the consignee" — reads like the FPOD too, but practice separates the two cleanly: accepted local- clearance filings put the gateway port there and the CFS in destPrt, while an inland move puts the ICD in both. Worked examples of both shapes are in which port goes in which field.

Shipping bill (SB), LEO and the export PCIN

The shipping bill is the exporter's customs declaration — the export-side counterpart of a Bill of Entry. LEO, the let-export order, is customs' release of that shipping bill for export. Customs attaches a PCIN (Primary Cargo Identification Number — not "prior") to every shipping bill at goods registration and sends it to the custodian with the LEO message; the post-LEO copy of the shipping bill carries it, and ICEGATE's PCIN Enquiry (Exports) returns it for a list of shipping-bill numbers and dates. An export CSN quotes that PCIN — one per shipping bill — rather than being issued one. See exports: filing an SCX, shipping bills and PCINs.

PCIN and MCIN — how long, and what they look like

Both are twenty characters: the two-digit year, PC or MC, two letters naming the message that issued it, then fourteen digits — 26PCEG09010000000100 for a shipping bill's PCIN, and 26MCSX00092800000100 for the MCIN customs issues to an export consolidation (invented examples, real shapes). CBIC's 2019–2020 training decks describe an "18 digit" PCIN; no real one seen is that length, and the message guide's field is twenty. An MCIN identifies consolidated cargo — CBIC: each MCIN aggregates PCINs — and is what customs issues to a consolidated master, on imports and, since it was seen on customs' record in September 2026, on export consolidations too.

The two letters after PC or MC say where the number was issued. EG is issued to the shipping bill itself, before any CSN: ICEGATE's PCIN enquiry answers a 26PCEG… with the shipping bill's number and date and no rotation. SX is issued to an export CSN (SCX) — PCSX to a straight line, MCSX to a consolidated master — and the same enquiry answers one with the CSN number, its date and the rotation (measured 2026-09-24 on a real departure manifest's references). A line's SDM quotes whichever the SCX's master row shows: its own SX number where it has one, else the EG number it referenced. SE is on the PCINs and MCINs issued to import CSNs, which a line's SAM then quotes: every one of the 548 references on a September 2026 Kolkata SAM reads 26PCSE… or 26MCSE…. SM is issued on the manifest side — a SAM / SDM or its amendment (SAA). That is read from one manifest and one amendment reply so far, not from a published rule. On the Kolkata manifest, a consolidated line that quoted a forwarder's CSN (rather than a PCIN or MCIN) was given its own 26MCSM… MCIN on customs' record, while lines that quoted a PCIN or MCIN kept the one they quoted.

EGM (Export General Manifest)

The export-side manifest. The line no longer files it: under SCMTR it files the departure manifest (SDM) and departure notification (SDN), and inland the customs inland manifest (CIM) took the place of the local EGM. Under the old system the rotation number was the EGM number once the EGM was filed — the export twin of "the IGM number is the rotation number" — and on the one SCMTR departure seen (Kolkata, 1 October 2026) it still is: after the line's SDN, customs compiled an EGM, numbered with the rotation and dated the day of the SDN, and mailed the line a file (SACHE18A) marking every shipping bill on the vessel with a letter — S on the EGM, Q for one customs' record still showed at stuffing. The letters, the 2018 circular's and customs' current ones, are explained in exports: who files, when.

SF, ASR and CIM — the messages behind an export container

Filed by other parties, never by a forwarder. SF is the custodian's stuffing message: the CFS, ICD or terminal reports, container by container, which PCINs were stuffed into which box. ASR is the authorised transhipper's report, filed per shipping bill. CIM — the customs inland manifest, with its departure and arrival events — covers the movement between an ICD or CFS and the gateway port, and took the place of the local EGM. They are why an export that starts at an ICD needs nothing about that inland leg beyond an itinerary line in your CSN. See Who else files against your cargo.

ANC, ASC, ASA and CA — the registration codes

How a filer is registered with ICEGATE under SCMTR. ASC is an authorised sea carrier (the shipping line), ASA its authorised agent, and ANC an authorised notified carrier — the category a freight forwarder, NVOCC, consol agent or customs broker registers under, with operations type CA. The submitter type in every CSN carries the same code. See Getting registered under SCMTR.

ODeX

A commercial documentation portal most shipping lines in India use to collect documents from their customers — shipping-bill copies, house bills of lading, Form 13 requests, and, under SCMTR, your CSN number and date and the PCINs. It is not a customs system: posting a CSN number there informs the line, which then quotes it in its own manifest. One line also names a second portal, MMD3.

Cut-offs: gate, CY, SI, VGM, shipping bill — and Form 13

The deadlines on a shipping line's export notice for one sailing. Gate open and gate (or CY) cut-off bound when the terminal takes loaded containers for the vessel; SI cut-off is the deadline for final shipping instructions; VGM cut-off for each container's verified gross mass; shipping bill cut-off for the let-export shipping bill. Form 13 is the terminal's gate-in permission for an export container, applied for through the line's portal. None of these is a customs deadline for your CSN, and none of these notices carries the VCN.

VGM (verified gross mass) — and why it is not the CSN's container weight

The weighed mass of a packed container: cargo, packing, dunnage and the container's own tare. It is what the line and terminal want before loading. The CSN's container weight field is labelled VGM in the message guide but defined there as cargo plus packing without tare — so the two figures differ by the weight of the empty box. See containers and shared boxes.

VIA number

A port's own reference for a vessel's call — Nhava Sheva's berthing report lists ships by it, and lines speak of "VIA submission" and "VIA change" for assigning a container to a vessel. It is not the VCN, and it does not go anywhere in a CSN. The VCN comes from customs' vessel-call enquiry; see exports: who files, when.