Bangladesh Moves to Cut Mobile Import Duties Ahead of NEIR Rollout

Ahead of the launch of the National Equipment Registration System (NEIR) on December 16, the interim government has begun working to simplify the mobile phone import duty structure and bring duty rates down to a rational level. As part of this initiative, a high-level inter-ministerial meeting will be held in the first week of next month. Organized by the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and ICT, the meeting will include policy-level officials from the Ministry of Commerce, BIDA, and the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

Sources say the meeting aims to remove obstacles in implementing NEIR, which is being introduced to reduce digital crimes involving SIM misuse, financial fraud, gambling, phone theft, robbery, and tax evasion. While stakeholders agree with the initiative, the existing 57% duty on imported mobile handsets has been labeled a “disastrous decision” for small and medium traders and ordinary consumers by the Mobile Business Community Bangladesh. In protest, importers have staged demonstrations across the country, including halting phone sales.

In response, Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser, said he has held “multiple meetings with mobile importers over the past few days.” He added that further discussions will continue. On Tuesday night, November 25, he said, “We have listened to their opinions very carefully. As a result, in the first week of December, a high-level meeting will be held with the Ministry of Commerce, BIDA, and NBR to simplify and rationalize the duty structure for legal mobile phone imports. We plan to discuss reducing duties in detail. We hope that, with the cooperation of the Commerce Ministry, NBR, and related agencies, legal imports will become more affordable and competitive.”

“We want to assure the country’s mobile importers that the government, with utmost sincerity and goodwill, will take necessary measures to make legal imports easier and cheaper, and a logical duty reform will begin. Please remain patient. Fundamental reforms require everyone to compromise a little and tolerate temporary tension,” Taiyeb added.

Alongside urging importers to cooperate with NEIR implementation, the Special Assistant also called on local handset manufacturers to take visible measures to reduce prices and make devices more competitive for consumers. Addressing them, Taiyeb said, “For the sake of consumers, please take concrete steps to reduce phone prices and make them more competitive.”

He also stated, “We humbly request that traders refrain entirely from unethical practices such as illegal imports, expanding markets for smuggled phones, buying and selling locally stolen devices, selling cloned phones with fake IMEI, or importing refurbished/old foreign phones and selling them as new after changing the casing.”

“We cannot allow Bangladesh to become a center for mobile phone smuggling or a dumping ground for used phones. We expect that when import duties are gradually brought down to rational levels, smartphone prices will naturally decline. Ultimately, our primary goal is to keep the digital space safe, control device-centric crime, and ensure accessible, secure devices for the public,” he said.

Earlier, on November 5, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) sent a letter to NBR requesting a reduction of duties and taxes on mobile phone imports. The letter sought decisions on lowering duties and VAT on mobile phone imports and local production to protect government revenue, prevent illegal handset inflow, and operationalize NEIR. Informally, a senior NBR official said the request “will be considered.”

In addition to reducing duties, BTRC sought NBR’s opinion and decisions on three issues:

1. Allowing unauthorized phones already in the country to be added to BTRC’s database for a limited period, with a decision on the applicable duties.

2. Taking immediate measures to lower the duties and VAT on both imported and locally manufactured smartphones.

3. Ensuring uniformity in duty structures between imported and domestically produced handsets.

Sector insiders believe that the upcoming meeting in early December will result in a market-friendly decision on these three issues.

According to BTRC, more than 60% of mobile phones used in the country are unofficial or unauthorized. However, industry associations claim the real figure is closer to 90%—making it one of the largest grey markets in the region. The major factor behind this situation is the huge disparity in taxation: around 57% total duty on approved imported handsets, and around 35% on local production. In contrast, grey-market sellers pay virtually no taxes, allowing them to sell the same products at nearly half the price. As a result, a large portion of consumers naturally turn to the grey market.

Given this reality, after mandatory SIM registration was introduced nationwide in 2016, the government attempted to implement handset registration but repeatedly failed due to delays.

DBTech/Muim/OR