Customs duty on gifts sent to Bangladesh by courier

Everything else on this site is about what you carry. This page is about what you post — and the rules are genuinely different, not merely stricter.

The short answer

• Baggage allowances do not apply to parcels. The 65 kg allowance, the 100 g jewellery allowance and the phone allowances are all accompanied baggage rules. A parcel is not accompanied baggage.
• Your recipient becomes the importer. Duty and clearance land on them, not on you.
• Marking a parcel “gift” changes nothing legally. It is a description, not an exemption.

Why posting it is usually worse

The three allowances people most want to use are precisely the ones that disappear when goods travel alone:

	Carried with you	Sent by courier
Baggage weight allowance	Applies	Does not apply
Jewellery allowance	Applies	Does not apply
Phone allowance	Applies	Does not apply
Who clears it	You, at arrival	Your recipient

A phone that would have entered free in your hand luggage is, in a parcel, an ordinary import in someone elses name.

The recipient bears the cost and the effort

This is the part that damages relationships. The person receiving your gift may face duty, a clearance process, and possibly a trip to collect it. A generous gesture becomes an errand and a bill.

If you are posting something valuable, tell the recipient it is coming and what is in it, so the paperwork is not a surprise.

Undervaluing lands on the recipient, not on you

Declaring a low value on the customs form is common and is a bad idea for a specific reason: the consequences fall on the recipient, who did not choose the declaration. If the value is queried, they deal with it.

Declare accurately. If the duty is unacceptable, the answer is usually to carry the item on your next trip instead.

When posting is genuinely the right answer

• The item is low value and the duty is immaterial.
• You are not travelling any time soon and the item is needed.
• The item is awkward to carry but unremarkable to import.

Related

• Gifts you carry
• What you must declare

What we could not verify

The de minimis value below which a parcel attracts no duty, if one currently applies, and the current courier clearance thresholds. We have not confirmed these from a primary source and therefore publish no figure. Ask your courier for the current position before you send anything valuable.