Shipping bill conversion under Section 149 depends on export-time documents supporting drawback claims and proper verification of the record.

Free shipping bills may be amended into drawback shipping bills under Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 where documentary evidence supporting the drawback claim existed at the time of export. The rejection could not rest solely on procedural non-declaration if the relevant export documents had not been properly examined. The matter required verification of the existing record, and conversion was therefore permissible in principle subject to such scrutiny, with the case remanded for fresh examination of the documents available at export.

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Issues: Whether free shipping bills could be converted into drawback shipping bills under Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 on the basis of documentary evidence existing at the time of export.

Analysis: Section 149 permits amendment of shipping bills where supporting documentary evidence existed at the time of export. The record showed that the documents relevant to the drawback claim were not examined before rejection. The denial of conversion, therefore, could not stand merely on the ground of procedural non-declaration, and the matter required verification of the existing export documents.

Conclusion: The conversion of free shipping bills to drawback shipping bills was held permissible in principle under Section 149, subject to verification of the documents available at the time of export, and the matter was remanded for fresh examination.

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