What are the destination charges at JNPT?

Terminal handling (THC), the delivery order fee, documentation and destination agency charges, plus port dues, ISPS and — where they apply — de-stuffing for LCL, storage, demurrage, detention, examination and inland haulage. The first group can normally be confirmed at booking; the rest are settled on arrival or only arise if something goes wrong.

What do PCS, LSS, CIC, EIS, EFS and EBS mean?

PCS is Port Congestion Surcharge, LSS is Low Sulphur Surcharge, CIC is Container Imbalance Charge, EIS is Equipment Imbalance Surcharge, and EFS and EBS are both emergency fuel or bunker surcharges under carrier-specific names. Other abbreviations such as OBS and LSA are defined by each carrier individually, so we always quote from the carrier's current tariff sheet rather than from memory.

Who pays destination charges in India?

Under FOB, CIF or CFR it is the consignee, and that is the normal arrangement on this trade. If you sell on DAP or DDP terms, the destination leg falls to the shipper, which is a different commercial decision and needs to be priced separately.

Is the destination leg included in the ocean freight?

No. Ocean freight covers the sea leg and the surcharges attached to it. Destination charges are billed separately by the terminal, the carrier, the destination agent and the port authority, so always compare quotations on the same scope — the same Incoterm, the same included items and the same number of free days.

How do we avoid demurrage and detention?

By planning the pickup before the vessel sails. Free time runs from discharge, so the consignee's customs broker, funds and transport should be ready before arrival. Demurrage applies inside the terminal, detention applies once the container has left the port and has not been returned — both are charged per container, per day, by the carrier.

Can you give us one all-in rate including destination charges?

We can give you one number covering everything we are able to confirm, and we will state in the same quotation which items are conditional and who pays them. What we will not do is promise a fixed figure for charges that are settled on arrival by a third party, because that would be a promise on someone else's costs.

JNPT Destination Charges: A Line-by-Line Breakdown

Short answer: charges at JNPT (Nhava Sheva) after the vessel berths are billed by four separate accounts — the terminal, the carrier, the destination agent and the customs authorities. THC, the D/O fee, documentation and the agency fee are the certain items and can usually be confirmed at booking; carrier surcharges such as PCS, LSS, CIC, EIS, EFS and EBS move with the market and are normally rolled into one ALL IN figure; storage, demurrage, detention and examination charges are conditional and are only quantified on arrival. A destination figure quoted weeks in advance is therefore a snapshot, not a commitment.

Who charges what at an Indian port

The single most common argument on this trade starts with one question: which destination charges were included in the rate. The answer is easier to follow once you accept that Indian port charges come from four different books, not one.

Charge	Standard name	Charged by	Normally paid by	Confirmable at booking?
Terminal handling at destination	THC	Terminal / carrier	Consignee	YES — most lanes
Delivery order / release	D/O fee	Carrier or destination agent	Consignee	YES
Documentation and manifest filing	Documentation / manifest fee	Agent or carrier	Consignee	YES
Destination agency	Destination agency fee	Destination agent	Consignee	YES — per shipment or per container
De-stuffing, LCL only	CFS / unstuffing	CFS or terminal	Consignee	YES — always ask on LCL
Telex release	Telex release fee	Carrier	Shipper — often asked to sit inside ALL IN	YES
Port security	ISPS	Terminal	Consignee	ON ARRIVAL
Port dues and wharfage	Port dues / wharfage	Port authority	Consignee	ON ARRIVAL
Storage inside the terminal	Storage / ground rent	Terminal	Consignee	ON ARRIVAL — after the free days
Container held in port	Demurrage	Carrier	Consignee	ON ARRIVAL — per container, per day
Container out of port, not returned	Detention	Carrier	Consignee	ON ARRIVAL — per container, per day
Customs examination	Examination / inspection	Customs-nominated agency	Consignee	ONLY IF SELECTED
Container cleaning or repair	Cleaning / repair	Carrier	Consignee	ON RETURN
Inland delivery	Inland haulage	Agent or trucker	Consignee, unless DAP	YES — per delivery point
Duties and GST	Customs duty / IGST	Customs	Consignee, unless DDP	Not quoted by us

The practical reading: the top of the table is what a forwarder can put in writing with confidence. The middle is what changes with the market. The bottom is what the consignee controls — and the bottom is where the surprises live.

The abbreviations, decoded

Indian importers routinely name the surcharges they want included, in abbreviations, as a condition of the quotation being considered at all. The six that appear most often are these:

PCS — Port Congestion Surcharge. Levied when a port is congested and vessels wait. It appears and disappears with port performance.
LSS — Low Sulphur Surcharge. The cost of burning compliant fuel under the IMO sulphur cap. On most trades it has effectively replaced the older bunker formulas.
CIC — Container Imbalance Charge. Charged when empty equipment is scarce or has to be repositioned, which on the India trade is often a seasonal matter.
EIS — Equipment Imbalance Surcharge. The same idea seen from the carrier's side: the cost of getting a box to a port where boxes are short.
EFS — Emergency Fuel Surcharge and EBS — Emergency Bunker Surcharge. Both are fuel surcharges under a different name, and both are carrier-specific in how they are applied.

The list does not stop there: quotations we receive also name OBS, LSA and others. Those are defined by each carrier for itself, so we do not decode them from memory — we ask the line for its current tariff sheet and quote from that. If a quotation names an abbreviation without spelling it out, treat it as unconfirmed.

Why we do not quote one all-in figure for the destination leg

Just about every India enquiry we receive asks for the ocean freight and destination charges as one number, "ALL IN, net/net". We understand why: it is easier to compare, and it protects the buyer from an invoice that grows after arrival. The difficulty is that part of the destination leg genuinely cannot be known in advance:

some charges are settled per shipment on arrival by the port authority, not by a tariff we hold;
carrier surcharges are revised monthly, and the exchange rate moves with them;
storage, demurrage and examination costs depend on how fast the consignee takes delivery — behaviour no forwarder can promise on the consignee's behalf.

So we do the honest version of the same thing: everything we can confirm is written into the quotation, the conditional items are described with the trigger and the paying party, and the free days at destination are stated in the quotation rather than assumed. A single all-in destination figure agreed weeks before arrival is a promise on someone else's costs.

What we actually see in the market

These are not estimates from a rate index. They are what our own China–India desk files show, from the enquiries and quotations we have handled.

What Indian importers ask for, in writing	How consistently
14 days free time at destination	In almost every enquiry we receive. It is treated as a default, and it is granted by the carrier — not by the forwarder.
A named list of surcharges to be included: PCS / LSS / CIC / EIS / LSA / OBS / EFS / EBS	Frequently, and often with the warning that without the breakdown the offer cannot be considered.
SEAWAY bill of lading or telex release rather than an original bill	Standard, because the consignee needs to clear the cargo.
A target rate, usually described as ALL IN, net/net	Common. Recent examples from our files: USD 1,025 per 20' GP, Shanghai → Nhava Sheva; USD 1,800–2,000 per 40' HQ, South China → Nhava Sheva, telex release included.

Two more facts from the same files, because they explain why rate validity is short and why a destination figure is a snapshot:

Between April and September 2026 the ocean freight we quoted on South China → Nhava Sheva moved from USD 750 per 20' GP to USD 3,500–3,600 per 40' HQ — a four-fold move inside five months. Our quotations deliberately carry validity measured in days, not months.
We have had to tell more than one importer, in writing, that a target rate was below anything available in the market that week. Saying so early is more useful than holding the enquiry open.

How to keep the arrival invoice predictable

Ask for three things in writing at quotation stage: which destination charges are included, how many free days apply at destination, and how long the rate is valid. Any quotation missing one of the three is not comparable with another.
Treat "ALL IN" as a scope statement, not a number. Two all-in quotations can differ by thousands of dollars in what they include.
Plan the pickup before the vessel sails. Free time is counted from discharge, not from when the buyer pays. This is the single most avoidable cost on the India trade.
Have the consignee brief its customs broker early on the HS code and product approvals — the product-side requirements are on the documents and customs checklist page.

How we quote the Indian leg

Confirmed and written down: THC, D/O fee, documentation, destination agency, CFS for LCL, telex release where applicable, and the number of free days at destination.
Described, not priced: storage, demurrage, detention, examination and cleaning — with the trigger condition and the party who pays.
Quoted per delivery point: inland haulage to the consignee's door or ICD.
Not touched by us: customs duty and GST, unless you have asked us to price a DDP arrangement, which is a separate exercise.

For transit times, port pairs and equipment on this lane, see China to India sea freight. Send us the port pair, the container type and the consignee's city and we will quote the ocean leg, the confirmed destination items and the free days together.

JNPT destination charges: what gets billed after the vessel arrives