Digital invoice of lading can guarantee price effectivity, sustainability and transparency in international maritime commerce
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Suphanat Khumsap
The Parliament enacted the Payments of Lading Act, 2025, through the monsoon session. This Act has changed the Indian Payments of Lading Act, 1856, however aside from minor restructuring, no substantial adjustments have been made.
Though the brand new laws claims to modernise maritime commerce, it surprisingly lacks any provision for digital invoice of lading (eBL), whose adoption is accelerating globally. A 2024 international survey performed by the Worldwide Chamber of Commerce revealed that the share of dual-format customers (utilizing each paper and digital BLs) has surged from 28 per cent in 2022 to 41.7 per cent in 2024. Between the identical interval, the general adoption fee of eBL elevated from 33 per cent to 49.2 per cent. Additional, the usage of eBL rather than conventional invoice of lading (BL) ends in roughly 94 per cent sooner processing, enhances course of effectivity by as much as 89 per cent, improves information accuracy by as much as 87 per cent, and enhances safety by 89 per cent.
Price financial savings
In response to a examine by McKinsey, ocean carriers difficulty round 45 million BLs yearly, and 100 per cent eBL adoption can yearly save roughly 28,000 bushes. Additionally, BL accounts for 10-30 per cent of complete commerce documentation price, and adoption of eBL might save round $6.5 billion in direct prices for stakeholders, and enhance annual international commerce progress by $30-40 billion.
The examine additional reveals that at current, customs are capable of bodily examine solely 2 per cent of containers. An eBL will facilitate the correct and well timed supply of information to customs officers, permitting them to examine cargo information and determine potential targets for inspection even earlier than the arrival of the cargo. It will cut back the unlawful commerce by 10-15 per cent globally.
Subsequently, eBL alone can guarantee price effectivity, sustainability and transparency in international maritime commerce. The absence of such a mechanism undermines the Act’s goal of streamlining operations inside the maritime sector.
Newly inserted Part 5 grants unregulated powers to the Central Authorities to offer instructions for finishing up the provisions of the Act. Such unilateral energy would depart no place for State governments, merchants or trade stakeholders in coverage issues. This provision will considerably hamper the federal association of port administration as offered underneath Record I (27) and Record III (31) of the Structure of India.
Part 4(1) offers that “Each invoice of lading within the fingers of a consignee or endorsee for helpful consideration.. shall be conclusive proof.. towards the grasp, however that such items could not have been so shipped.” Many consider that this can not directly open the doorways for faux payments, hawala transactions, and fraudulent buying and selling because it permits a BL to be handled as legitimate even when items haven’t been shipped. Such a provision undermines the Act’s goal of enhancing transparency inside the maritime sector.
The laws additionally ignores a big drawback within the fashionable transport trade. Article III, Rule 3 of the Hague-Visby Guidelines and Articles 15(1) & 16 (1, 2) of the Hamburg Guidelines require the provider to signal the BL stating the products had been ‘shipped in obvious good order and situation’, making certain weight, amount, and many others., which turns into troublesome particularly within the case of fuel tankers.
With the intention to keep away from guaranteeing the accuracy of the burden or amount, the masters began including a “Weight/amount unknown” clause within the BL. Nevertheless, the applicability of this clause varies throughout the jurisdictions; as an example, non-common regulation international locations don’t recognise such a clause, whereas English regulation doesn’t think about the BL to be prima facie proof of the burden or amount.
Subsequently, for an equitable and sustainable transport trade, we have to transfer away not solely from the colonial Act but additionally from the colonial mindset. A extra forward-looking strategy is important to really modernise and future-proof India’s maritime commerce.
The author is a global commerce lawyer
Printed on August 27, 2025
