Logistics
The transfer of goods from one vessel to another at an intermediate port during transit.
Section 54 treats transhipment as a distinct customs act with its own document. “Where any goods imported into a customs station are intended for transhipment, a bill of transhipment shall be presented to the proper officer” — not a bill of entry, which section 46 expressly excludes for such goods. Where the movement takes place “under an international treaty or bilateral agreement between the Government of India and Government of a foreign country”, a declaration for transhipment replaces the bill. The duty position follows the destination: goods shown in the arrival or import manifest as intended for transhipment “to any place outside India … may be allowed to be so transhipped without payment of duty”. Getting the manifest entry right therefore matters as much as the transhipment document, because the relief depends on what the manifest said when the goods arrived.
Primary legislation, and only that. The text quoted above is the Customs Act, 1962 as published by CBIC and amended to 30 March 2022. The Act repeatedly leaves the operating detail to rules, regulations and notifications — forms, rates, qualifications, time limits — so the statute tells you what is required and the subordinate instrument tells you how. Check the current rules and any later amendment before relying on a procedure, and remember that a figure or a rate in a notification changes far more often than the section that authorises it.
From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).
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Compiled reference — verify current specifics at the source.
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