Pre or Back dated BL means a BL which contains shipment date before the loading was actually completed. Now this is a practical scenario and in the ICS DCC exam generally the points tested are below:

1. Reasons why such request is made by the charterer
2. Advice on what shall an owner do in this situation, mentioning reasons behind the advice/ Mention all possible outcomes

Reasons of requesting predated BL:

Majority of the international trade is done through the use of Letter of Credit (LC). Now LC contains certain terms fulfilling which the shipper’s payment is reased which is governed by Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP). The whole process is dependendent on the produced documents and BL is a prime document for such transaction. In the LC terms there is a shipment date within which the cargo must be shippned in order for shipper to get payment from the bank. This is the main reason shippers want to have the date behind the LC mentioned shipping date. The purpose of the shipper may vary:

• In any case, if the shpper fails that date then the payment will not be released by the bank and shippiner will suffer loss. So fo genuinely to avoid loss, speciallly in cases when the shipment is 1-3 days late their intention might be genuine to avoid loss.
• They might be trying to do some fraud to issue the BL before completion of the loading and haivng the payment early in their account making financial profit.
• This might also be the case that although rare that this is reqeusted in order to have some tax benefit or exemption.

Advice with reasons on what to do:

Advice is obviously not to issue such BL as that may have severe consequences listed below

• Fraud: This will be false representation and the carrier will be liable to fraud. So receiver might sue the carier for damage
• No P&I Cover: If such BL is issued then there will be no P&I cover for the consequence so the carrier has to bear all the responsibilities.
• Reputation loss: If there is any complicacy arises owner will lose its reputation fo rdoing fraudulant activities.
• Refusal: The receiver of the goods might refuse to receive the goods if somehow came to know about the issue, specially if the price of the cargo droppes in the market or due to seasonality if the demand of the good dissapears.