In practice, many people assume that the bill of lading number on the customs declaration should be the bill of lading number on the bill of lading. However, from the perspective of the export supply chain, the bill of lading number on the customs declaration is not necessarily the bill of lading number on the bill of lading. This article will analyze various situations one by one.Basic regulationsAccording to the provisions of Article 11 of the Customs Declaration Form Filling Standards on the Bill of Lading Number, fill in the number of the import and export goods bill of lading or waybill. Only one bill of lading or waybill number is allowed to be filled in one customs declaration form. When one shipment of goods corresponds to multiple bills of lading or waybills, it should be filled in separately. The specific filling requirements are as follows:sea freight01Directly at the place of entry and exit or through national customs integrationCustoms clearance mode for handling customs declaration proceduresWaterway transportation:Fill in the import and export bill of lading number; If there is a bill of lading, fill in the import and export bill of lading number+”*”+bill of lading number.Highway transportation:Before using the highway manifest, it is exempted from filling out; After activating the highway manifest, fill in the import and export master waybill number.Railway transportation:Fill in the waybill number.Air transportation: Fill in the total waybill number+”_”+sub waybill number. If there is no sub waybill, fill in the total waybill number.Mail transportation:Fill in the postal package tracking number.02Customs declaration for transshipment of goodsAt the time of importWaterway transportation:Fill in the bill of lading number for direct transfer and transit, and avoid filling in the bill of lading for advance customs declaration.Railway transportation:Fill in the railway waybill number for direct transfer and transfer, and avoid filling in the customs declaration in advance.Air transportation:Fill in the total waybill number+”_”+sub waybill number for direct and transit goods. Early customs declaration is exempt from filling out.Other modes of transportation:Exemption from filling out.If the above transportation methods for imported goods are transported by road within Guangdong Province for customs clearance, please fill in the license plate number.At the time of exportWaterway transportation:Fill in the bill of lading number for transit goods; Non transit goods are exempt from reporting; For pre declared transit goods for automobile transportation within Guangdong Province, please fill in the license plate number of the carrier vehicle.Other modes of transportation:Exemption from reporting; For pre declared transit goods for automobile transportation within Guangdong Province, please fill in the license plate number of the carrier vehicle.03Adopting the “centralized declaration” customs clearance methodHandling customs declaration proceduresThe import and export start and end dates of the consolidated declaration list filled out on the customs declaration form [in years (4 digits), months (2 digits), days (2 digits), years (4 digits), months (2 digits), days (2 digits)].04Goods without actual entry and exitExemption from filling out.Analysis under direct declarationAccording to regulations, waterway transportation requires filling in the import and export bill of lading number. If there is a bill of lading, fill in the import and export bill of lading number+”*”+bill of lading number.If there is only total order information, it is not easy to have disagreements. There is a situation of total and sub waybills in waterway transportation; Meanwhile, in practice, due to the setting of the manifest switch, some customs do not require the declaration of sub manifest information and only require the transmission of the master manifest. Therefore, in order to ensure smooth customs clearance, the “bill of lading information” when filling out the customs declaration is usually not displayed simultaneously with the master manifest and sub manifest according to the filling specifications, but only the master manifest information is filled in.The consequence of this is that, on the one hand, the customs clearance process cannot obtain timely information on the split order, and on the other hand, customs risk prevention and control will also be unable to obtain specific shipper information, resulting in inaccurate collection of safety access and exit information, thereby affecting risk prevention and control.It is recommended that the transmission of manifest and declaration of customs declaration be strictly in accordance with regulatory requirements. If there is any separate information, it should be transmitted in a complete and timely manner to further strengthen customs clearance and logistics monitoring management.Analysis under transit transportationTaking export waterway transportation as an example, fill in the bill of lading number for transit goods; Non transit goods are exempt from reporting; Due to the fact that transit goods are arranged by the carrier for customs transportation, it is necessary to fill in the bill of lading number of the main vessel in the customs declaration form. In the case of transshipment in customs transportation, it is important to note that the vessel name on the customs declaration is for a regional vessel, but the bill of lading number on the customs declaration is for a mainline vessel, which is extremely easy to overlook and create ambiguity.It is recommended that the tax refund department pay special attention to the transit situation during customs clearance transportation when reviewing documents, and distinguish the bill of lading number and ship name information in different situations.Analysis based on the time logic of export businessAccording to the logical analysis of business export time, the bill of lading number on the customs declaration is not the actual bill of lading number, but only the booking number.01The shipper or freight forwarder, on behalf of the shipper, makes a booking with the carrier and generates a booking number, which is the SO number, or a booking NO. or DR NO. (Dock Receipt) number.02Fill out the customs declaration form and declare it. At this point, it is necessary to fill in the “bill of lading number” on the customs declaration form, but the bill of lading has not been generated and there is no true bill of lading number. The “bill of lading number” filled in is essentially the booking number, that is, the SO number (or booking NO. and DR NO.).03Release the goods onto the ship. After the ship departs, the carrier issues a bill of lading, at which point the bill of lading and its number will be officially generated.So, from the logic of time, it is not feasible to provide an accurate bill of lading number when filling out the customs declaration form. Many carriers have the same booking number and bill of lading number, thus avoiding the problem of discrepancies between the actual bill of lading number and the bill of lading number on the customs declaration.The Importance of Checking Bill of Lading Numbers for Export Tax RefundsIf the bill of lading number on the customs declaration is the bill of lading number of the shipping company, the tax refund department should carefully review the bill of lading and check whether the bill of lading for the goods is the total bill of lading MBL issued by the shipping company, otherwise the tax refund needs to be highly concerned.For export business with only MBL, if the enterprise provides HBL and the HBL NO. and MBL NO. are completely consistent, we can highly suspect that this is a forged bill of lading made by the enterprise in order to obtain export tax rebates smoothly.Usually, if a shipment has both a master order and a sub order, the master order MBL is usually issued by the shipping company, and the shipper and consignee are usually the NVOCC issuing the sub order HBL.Due to each carrier having their own bill of lading naming convention, it is unreasonable for HBL and MBL to have the same bill of lading number. In practice, due to various circumstances, such as self consolidation, contract setting, Chinese shippers accepting FCR freight forwarder receipts but unable to obtain the original bill of lading, and even to deceive export tax refunds, it is impossible to obtain a shipping company bill of lading MBL that can be refunded. For the sake of obtaining export tax refunds smoothly, shippers and freight forwarders usually copy the cargo information on the MBL by creating a non-existent HBL, and modify the shipper’s information and bill of lading number information to the MBL bill of lading information reported by the tax refund enterprise and the manifest system.It is recommended that tax authorities and customs further strengthen the exchange of logistics information, while customs continue to improve manifest management to better support the healthy development of foreign trade and domestic and international dual circulation.