Icegate

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.

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.

ICEGATE Overview

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.

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.

Benefits of ICEGATE

ICEGATE Portal facilitates the e-filing of both the import and export declarations.
The Portal permits the customs to respond to exporters and importers after assessing shipping bills and bills of entry.
It ensures that the declaration filed through the digital signatures is allocated by customs, acting as a Certification Authority under the IT Act, 2000, and will not be made invalid.

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. All operations are done cost-free. The fee structure, details, and mode of collection of the transaction fee will be declared shortly.

Authorized Banks

Given below are the authorized banks to make E-payments through ICEGATE.

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. The present article covers the procedure for auto registration on ICEGATE and the downside of auto registration on ICEGATE.

Procedure for auto registration on ICEGATE

The easy auto registration procedure on ICEGATE is narrated hereunder-

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.

The downside of auto registration on ICEGATE

Even though the auto registration facility is entirely paperless and straightforward, the same comes with a drawback. The importer/ exporter registered via the auto registration facility cannot file customs documents.