What you must declare at Bangladesh customs
A single checklist of everything that needs declaring on arrival at Dhaka — gold, phones, cash, and the allowances that decide each one.
One page, one checklist. Work down it before you land and you will know which channel you are taking.
The short answer
Declare if any of the following is true:
- You are carrying gold bars in any quantity.
- Your worn ornaments exceed 100 g, or more than 12 pieces of any one type.
- You have more new phones than your yearly allowance (1, or 2 with a BMET card).
- You have more than two used handsets.
- You are carrying more than USD 10,000 equivalent in cash.
- You are carrying anything prohibited or restricted.
The checklist in detail
Gold bars — always declare
There is no duty-free quantity of gold bars. Any amount is dutiable at the published per-tola rate, up to the yearly ceiling. See gold allowance for the figures and the cap.
Worn ornaments — two conditions, both must hold
100 g or less, and no more than 12 pieces of any one type of ornament. Fail either and it is assessed rather than free.
Phones — count them, do not value them
Since July 2025 the allowance is counted in units per year, not in Taka per handset. One new phone a year (two with a BMET card), plus two used handsets. See new phone duty.
Cash — the threshold is a total
USD 10,000 equivalent, across all currencies combined, not per currency. Above it, complete the FMJ form. Declaring is free. See cash limit.
Prohibited and restricted items
A separate question from duty: some things may not come in at all, and some need a permit. See prohibited items.
Allowances attach to travellers
Every allowance on this page belongs to one traveller. They are not pooled across a family and they are not transferable. Two adults have two jewellery allowances; they do not have one doubled allowance that either may use.
Once a year means once a year
The gold-bar allowance and the new-phone allowance are both per calendar year, not per trip. A second trip in the same year does not refresh them.
Work out your figure
The calculator takes everything above and returns the duty, the channel, and a printable summary.
What we could not verify
Duty rates for quantities over the phone allowance — see new phone duty for why we do not publish a number.
Sources
- Baggage (Import) Rules, NBR
- SRO 261 (June 2025) — gold bars
- SRO 312 (July 2025) — new handsets
- Bangladesh Bank / NBR — currency declaration
Re-checked every June budget cycle.