diff --git a/BUILD b/BUILD
index 37252ae00af1..2dde1330a56e 100644
--- a/BUILD
+++ b/BUILD
@@ -25,14 +25,6 @@ config_setting(
     visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
 )
 
-genrule(
-    name = "deb_version",
-    srcs = [],
-    outs = ["deb_version.txt"],
-    cmd = "echo $${ISTIO_VERSION:-\"0.3.0-dev\"} > \"$@\"",
-    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
-)
-
 load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_prefix")
 
 go_prefix("istio.io/proxy")
diff --git a/script/push-debian.sh b/script/push-debian.sh
index 96c831788ab0..666271c214b4 100755
--- a/script/push-debian.sh
+++ b/script/push-debian.sh
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #   -p gs://istio-release/release/0.2.1/deb
 
 ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd -P)"
+VERSION_FILE="${ROOT}/tools/deb/version"
 BAZEL_ARGS=""
 BAZEL_TARGET='//tools/deb:istio-proxy'
 BAZEL_BINARY="${ROOT}/bazel-bin/tools/deb/istio-proxy"
@@ -55,8 +56,10 @@ while getopts ":c:o:p:v:" arg; do
 done
 
 if [[ -n "${ISTIO_VERSION}" ]]; then
-  BAZEL_ARGS+=" --action_env=ISTIO_VERSION"
-  export ISTIO_VERSION
+  BAZEL_TARGET+='-release'
+  BAZEL_BINARY+='-release'
+  echo "${ISTIO_VERSION}" > "${VERSION_FILE}"
+  trap 'rm "${VERSION_FILE}"' EXIT
 fi
 
 [[ -z "${GCS_PATH}" ]] && [[ -z "${OUTPUT_DIR}" ]] && usage
diff --git a/tools/deb/BUILD b/tools/deb/BUILD
index 09ac26911aaf..de0dfc6af25c 100644
--- a/tools/deb/BUILD
+++ b/tools/deb/BUILD
@@ -68,6 +68,20 @@ pkg_deb(
     maintainer = "The Istio Authors <istio-dev@googlegroups.com>",
     package = "istio-proxy",
     postinst = "postinst.sh",
+    version = "0.3-dev",
+)
+
+pkg_deb(
+    name = "istio-proxy-release",
+    architecture = "amd64",
+    built_using = "bazel",
+    conffiles_file = "conffiles",
+    data = ":debian-data",
+    description_file = "description",
+    homepage = "http://istio.io",
+    maintainer = "The Istio Authors <istio-dev@googlegroups.com>",
+    package = "istio-proxy",
+    postinst = "postinst.sh",
     tags = ["manual"],
-    version_file = "//:deb_version",
+    version_file = "version",
 )