How much gold can I bring to Bangladesh from the USA?

Gold is the single most common reason a Bangladeshi traveller gets stopped at Hazrat Shahjalal. The rules are not complicated, but they are two separate rules that people routinely merge into one — bars and worn jewellery are treated completely differently.

The short answer

• Gold bars: up to 117 g (10 tola) per calendar year, and you pay Tk 5,000 per tola — a maximum of Tk 50,000. This is a duty, not a ban: you declare it and you pay it.
• Worn ornaments: up to 100 g is duty-free, and no more than 12 pieces of any one type of ornament.
• The two allowances are separate. Wearing 100 g of jewellery does not reduce your 117 g bar allowance.

Once per calendar year means exactly that. If you brought bars in January, you do not get a fresh allowance in November of the same year.

Gold bars, in detail

Duty is charged per tola, not per gram. One tola is 11.664 g, so the 117 g annual ceiling is a little over ten tola.

You bring	Tola	Duty
25 g	2.14	Tk 10,717
50 g	4.29	Tk 21,433
100 g	8.57	Tk 42,867
116.64 g (10 tola)	10.00	Tk 50,000
117 g (the stated ceiling)	10.03	Tk 50,000

The tola column is rounded for display; the duty is charged on the exact conversion, so do not re-multiply the rounded figure — you will be out by a few Taka. The calculator uses the exact value.

Two things worth noticing in that table:

1. The money caps before the weight does. Ten tola is 116.64 g, so duty stops rising at Tk 50,000 slightly before you reach the 117 g legal limit. Between 116.64 g and 117 g you are still legal and still pay Tk 50,000.
2. Above 117 g there is no “just pay more” option. The excess is not permitted. It is not a higher duty band — it is outside the allowance.

Worn jewellery, in detail

The jewellery allowance is for gold you are wearing or carrying as personal effects, not for stock. Two conditions apply together:

• 100 g or less. Over that and it is assessed at the airport rather than waved through.
• No more than 12 pieces of the same item type — twelve bangles, twelve rings, and so on. This is the rule that catches wedding shopping.

If you are over on either, expect assessment. That is not automatically a penalty, but it is the red channel and it takes time.

Which channel do I use?

• Bars, any amount: red channel. You are paying duty.
• Ornaments within both limits: green channel.
• Jewellery over any limit: red channel.

If you are unsure, use the red channel. Declaring something that turns out to be duty-free costs you ten minutes. Not declaring something dutiable is a different category of problem.

Work out your own figure

The duty calculator takes grams and gives you the Taka figure, the channel to use, and a printable summary you can hand over at the desk.

What we could not verify

Nothing on this page is estimated — every figure above comes from the sources listed below. Where the site does not have a verified figure, it says so rather than guessing.