Documents required to export from India, by stage

An export file is usually handed over as a list: get an Importer-Exporter Code, get a GST registration, get an AD code, then produce an invoice, a packing list and a shipping bill. The list is accurate and almost useless, because it does not say what any of it is for. Paragraph 2.06(a) of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 names only three mandatory documents for the export of goods from India. Everything else on the usual list is either a registration that must already exist, or a conditional document that the product or the destination adds.

Which documents are mandatory for an export shipment?

Paragraph 2.06(a) of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 lists exactly three: a bill of lading, airway bill, lorry receipt, railway receipt or postal receipt; a commercial invoice cum packing list; and a shipping bill, bill of export or postal bill of export. The policy's own note records that the invoice cum packing list follows CBIC circulars issued under the Customs Act 1962, and that a separate commercial invoice and packing list are also accepted. That is the whole mandatory set. Paragraph 2.06(c) then adds that for goods carrying restrictions, policy conditions or a no objection requirement, the regulatory authority concerned may notify additional documents, and paragraph 2.06(d) lets a regulator seek more in a specific case.

Which registrations have to exist before the first shipment?

Four, and each is issued by a different body on a different clock. The Importer-Exporter Code comes from DGFT under paragraph 2.05 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023. A GST registration is what the zero rating routes in Section 16 of the IGST Act 2017 are exercised through. An AD code has to be registered with Customs against a bank account before a shipping bill can be filed. And where a benefit under the policy is claimed, a Registration cum Membership Certificate is issued by a Registering Authority notified by DGFT under paragraph 2.77 of the Handbook of Procedures 2023. None of these is a per-shipment document. All four are read by per-shipment documents.

What does the IEC feed, and who issues it?

Paragraph 2.05 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 provides that the IEC is a 10-character alpha-numeric number allotted to an entity, that it shall be the same as the Permanent Account Number, and that it is issued by DGFT on an online application. Paragraph 2.05(a) provides that no export or import of goods shall be made by any person without one unless specifically exempted. Paragraph 2.10(a) of the Handbook of Procedures 2023 gives it permanent validity unless suspended or cancelled, and covers all branches, divisions, units and factories of the applicant. It is the key every later record is filed against, which is why the IEC annual update is not an administrative errand.

What does the AD code registration feed?

The money coming back. Rule 96(3) of the CGST Rules 2017 provides that an amount equal to the integrated tax paid on each shipping bill is electronically credited to the bank account of the applicant mentioned in the registration particulars and as intimated to the Customs authorities. Public Notice No. 40/2025 dated 12-09-2025 of the Principal Commissioner of Customs (Import), Air Cargo Complex, Mumbai Customs Zone-III records that registration of an AD code with an associated bank account in ICES was a one-time requirement per Customs EDI port for filing documents such as shipping bills. No registered AD code, no shipping bill from that port, and no route home for the refund. AD code registration takes the port mapping apart.

What does the tax route decide?

Section 16 of the IGST Act 2017 defines a zero rated supply and gives two ways to realise it. Under Section 16(3), as substituted with effect from 01-10-2023, a registered person may supply without payment of integrated tax under bond or letter of undertaking and claim refund of unutilised input tax credit. The alternative is to pay integrated tax and claim the tax back, and Rule 96 of the CGST Rules 2017 runs that route off the shipping bill itself. The choice is declared at filing, not settled afterwards, and it decides which refund machinery your file spends the next quarter inside. Exporting under a letter of undertaking sets out the clock that route carries.

Which documents are conditional on the product?

The conditional set is keyed to the ITC (HS) line, which paragraph 2.02 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 describes as the classification against which the import and export policy for every good is indicated. Where the line is restricted, paragraph 2.08 requires an authorisation or permission, and paragraph 2.16 of the Handbook of Procedures 2023 gives an export authorisation for restricted non-SCOMET goods a validity of 24 months from the date of issue. Where a product regulator applies, its own consent or certificate joins the file under paragraph 2.06(c). We do not list those regulators by product here, because that list moves by notification and a stale list is worse than none.

Which documents are conditional on the destination?

The destination adds a preferential certificate of origin whenever the buyer intends to claim a concessional rate under a trade agreement, and paragraph 2.88 of the Handbook of Procedures 2023 records that India had signed 13 free trade agreements and 6 limited preferential trade agreements as of March 2023. Which agency issues the certificate, and on which form, is decided by the agreement claimed rather than by Indian export law in the abstract, so we name no issuing body here. What is worth knowing is that the burden falls on your buyer's side of the border, and it is the mirror of the origin burden covered in what stops a container at the port.

Where does each per-shipment document land downstream?

The chain is short and strict. The invoice value and the classification are copied into the shipping bill under Section 50 of the Customs Act 1962. The shipping bill is then deemed to be an application for refund of integrated tax under Rule 96(1) of the CGST Rules 2017, but only once the person in charge of the conveyance files the departure manifest, export manifest or export report required by Section 41 of the Customs Act 1962, and the exporter has furnished a valid return in FORM GSTR-3B. The order permitting clearance and loading under Section 51 carries the date that paragraph 2.17(b) of the Handbook of Procedures 2023 makes the date of reckoning of export for a benefit under the policy.

That is why the useful question is never how many documents there are. It is which of them a later reader compares against another. Purser Outbound holds the shipment as one record and projects the commercial invoice, the packing list and the declaration pack from it, so the fields that must agree were entered once. Purser never submits to a government portal, and it never sends an outbound message without a recorded human approval event. The customs broker still files the shipping bill and keeps the filing, the relationship and the fee. What changes is what arrives on their desk.

Where to go from here

Each registration on this page has its own failure mode, and each of the guides below picks one up at the point where it is still cheap to fix.

• The document every field ends up inside. The shipping bill, field by field traces which entries propagate into refunds, scheme claims and realisation.
• The registration that decides the port. AD code registration covers the documents, the approval route and the port mapping that catches exporters out.
• The registration that expires quietly. The IEC annual update runs in a fixed window every year, and missing it de-activates the code.
• Why the same field disagrees across the file. One invoice value, thirteen assertions counts the re-entries on a single shipment.

Frequently asked questions

What documents are mandatory to export goods from India?

Paragraph 2.06(a) of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 makes three documents mandatory for the export of goods from India: a bill of lading, airway bill, lorry receipt, railway receipt or postal receipt; a commercial invoice cum packing list; and a shipping bill, bill of export or postal bill of export. A separate commercial invoice and packing list are also accepted, and a regulator may notify additional documents for restricted or condition-bound goods.

Which registrations does an exporter need before the first shipment?

Four registrations sit behind the shipment documents: an Importer-Exporter Code from DGFT under paragraph 2.05 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, a GST registration through which the zero rating routes in Section 16 of the IGST Act 2017 are exercised, an AD code registered with Customs against a bank account, and, where a policy benefit is claimed, a Registration cum Membership Certificate from a Registering Authority notified under paragraph 2.77 of the Handbook of Procedures 2023.

Is an Importer-Exporter Code the same as a PAN?

Paragraph 2.05 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 provides that the IEC is a 10-character alpha-numeric number allotted to an entity and that, following the introduction of GST, the IEC shall be the same as the Permanent Account Number, issued separately by DGFT on an online application. Paragraph 2.10(a) of the Handbook of Procedures 2023 gives it permanent validity unless suspended or cancelled.

Which export document feeds the integrated tax refund?

The shipping bill. Rule 96(1) of the CGST Rules 2017 provides that a shipping bill filed by an exporter of goods shall be deemed to be an application for refund of integrated tax paid, and that the application is deemed filed only once the departure manifest, export manifest or export report is filed and the exporter has furnished a valid return in FORM GSTR-3B. The refund is credited to the bank account intimated to the Customs authorities.

Which export documents are conditional rather than mandatory?

The conditional documents are keyed to the ITC (HS) line and to the destination. Paragraph 2.08 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 requires an authorisation for restricted goods, paragraph 2.06(c) lets a product regulator notify further documents where the goods carry restrictions, policy conditions or a no objection requirement, and a preferential certificate of origin joins the file wherever the buyer claims a concessional rate under a trade agreement.