Inland Container Depot (ICD)

An inland container depot (ICD) is a customs-controlled container terminal in India's interior, often called a dry port. Under section 7(1)(aa) of the Customs Act, 1962, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) appoints by notification the places that alone may serve as inland container depots for unloading imported goods and loading export goods. Section 2(12) of the Act then counts an ICD as a customs port. So an exporter in Delhi can clear a container for export at an ICD far from the coast, and an importer can clear goods there, without doing customs work at the seaport.

What happens at an ICD

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry's guidelines, quoted in the Comptroller and Auditor General's 2018 audit of ICDs and CFSs, describe an ICD as a common-user facility for handling and temporarily storing laden and empty containers under customs control. Customs and other agencies there can clear goods for home use, warehousing, temporary admission, re-export and export. The audit lists the main functions:

• Receiving and dispatching cargo, and stuffing and stripping containers
• Customs clearance of exports and imports
• Moving containers by rail or road to and from the gateway ports
• Consolidating and deconsolidating LCL cargo, temporary storage, and container maintenance and repair

ICD vs CFS vs port

• ICD: generally located inland, away from the gateway ports. The CAG notes that most ICDs are rail-connected to their gateway port, and calls that the key difference from a CFS
• CFS: an off-dock facility next to or near the port that eases port congestion by moving cargo handling and customs work outside the port area. It often has no rail link
• Gateway port: where the container is loaded on or discharged from the ocean vessel

The same audit named ICD Tughlakabad in Delhi as India's largest ICD, with 19.8 percent of the value of imports and exports handled by India's 80 active ICDs in 2016-17 (CAG Report No. 16 of 2018).

How export cargo moves from an ICD

The exporter, or its customs broker, files the shipping bill for the ICD. Customs gives the let export order there, and the container is sealed and sent by rail or road to the gateway port. It is loaded there under the vessel's export manifest. On imports it works the other way round: the container is discharged at the port, moves inland under customs control, and the importer files the bill of entry for the ICD, which the Act treats as the customs station where the goods are cleared.

What an ICD on the bill of lading means

When the place of receipt on the bill of lading is an ICD, the carrier or NVOCC usually takes charge of the container at the ICD. The rail or road leg to the port is then part of its through transport, and the quote and cut-offs are set at the ICD. When the place of receipt is the port, the shipper usually arranges and pays for the inland leg itself. Carriers and ICDs differ, so check the place of receipt, the cut-off and which inland charges the quote includes.

Is there an ICD in the United States?

Not under that name. US inland points work through the in-bond system: under 19 CFR 18.1, imported cargo can travel under bond from the port of unlading to another port before duty is paid, for example on an immediate transportation (IT) entry. Under 19 CFR 142.2, entry is then due within 15 calendar days after the cargo arrives at the port of destination. Inland rail ramps and inland ports of entry fill the role an ICD plays in India.

On Airlift's India lanes

Most of Airlift's bookings run from India to the United States. When you ask for a quote on the India to USA lane, tell us where the container will be stuffed: at your factory, at an ICD or at a port CFS. That sets the place of receipt on our house bill and decides who arranges the inland leg.