CBIC Moves SCMTR Table Date to October 31 Under Third Amendment Regulations, 2026

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has amended the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transshipment Regulations, 2018 (SCMTR) again, moving the date appearing against serial number 6 in the post-FORM-XII table to October 31, 2026. The change was notified on September 1 through Notification No. 73/2026-Customs (N.T.), G.S.R. 771(E), as the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transshipment (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026.

The amendment is narrow in wording but operationally significant for maritime trade compliance. It does not rewrite the SCMTR framework. Instead, it substitutes a single date in the implementation table: against Sr. No. 6, column (3), the entry is now “31.10.2026”. The regulations say the amendment comes into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.

What Notification 73/2026 changes

CBIC issued the amendment using powers under section 157 of the Customs Act, 1962 read with sections 30, 30A, 41, 41A, 53, 54 and 56, section 98(3) and section 158(2). The statutory references reflect the wider cargo-manifest, arrival, departure and transshipment architecture under which SCMTR operates.

The official text makes one operative change: it replaces the date attached to serial number 6 in the table following FORM-XII with 31 October 2026. The notification carries file reference F. No. 450/58/2015-Cus.-IV(Pt.I) and was signed by Indrajit Panda, Under Secretary.

The principal SCMTR regulations were originally notified through Notification 38/2018-Customs (N.T.) dated May 11, 2018. The September Gazette notes that they were last amended by Notification 61/2026-Customs (N.T.) dated July 1, 2026. That July amendment had placed August 31, 2026 against the same serial-number entry. The latest notification therefore pushes that table date by two months, to October 31.

Why the scope needs to be read carefully

Professionals should avoid describing the notification as a blanket extension of every SCMTR obligation. The legal text specifically amends only Sr. No. 6, column (3) of the table after FORM-XII. Other filing obligations, timelines or responsibilities under the regulations are not stated to be changed by Notification 73/2026.

That precision matters for shipping lines, vessel agents, terminal and port stakeholders, freight and logistics operators, customs brokers and compliance teams. A business should first identify whether its process falls within the serial-number entry whose date has changed before treating October 31 as the operative deadline for that process.

SCMTR has seen repeated transition-date amendments

The serial-number 6 date has been moved multiple times as implementation has progressed. For example, an amendment at the end of 2025 moved the relevant date to March 31, 2026; the first 2026 amendment moved it to June 30; and the second 2026 amendment, Notification 61/2026, moved it to August 31. The September 1 notification now substitutes October 31, 2026.

This sequence shows why compliance calendars should not rely on an old saved copy of the implementation table. Teams should keep the latest Gazette amendment with their SCMTR working papers and update internal readiness trackers whenever CBIC moves the table date.

Action points for customs and finance teams

- Update the compliance calendar: record October 31, 2026 against the affected Sr. No. 6 table entry and retain Notification 73/2026 as support.

- Confirm applicability: map the relevant business role and filing process to the SCMTR table instead of assuming every sea-cargo timeline has been extended.

- Check system readiness: use the additional time, where applicable, to validate manifest data fields, interfaces, user access and operational hand-offs.

- Align advisers and operations: customs, logistics, tax, finance and IT teams should work from the same latest version of the regulation and implementation date.

- Preserve the change history: retain the July and September amendments to explain why an earlier August 31 implementation date no longer applies to the affected entry.

Notification 73/2026 is a targeted SCMTR transition-date amendment. The defensible compliance position is not “all SCMTR deadlines are October 31”; it is that the date in Sr. No. 6, column (3) of the table after FORM-XII is now October 31, 2026. Businesses should update the affected workflow while continuing to follow the rest of SCMTR on its own terms.

Key takeaway

A fresh CBIC implementation-date amendment affects sea-cargo compliance calendars and has a precise notification number and October 31 date likely to be searched by customs, logistics and finance teams.

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