Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury today announced a series of customs and trade facilitation measures, including extending custom bond facilities to all export-oriented sectors beyond ready-made garments (RMG) and withdrawing the 10 percent supplementary duty on imports of synthetic woven fabrics.
Presenting the national budget for FY2026-27 in parliament, he said the customs bond facility would be expanded to other export-oriented industries to help unlock their export potential while ensuring safeguards against misuse.
The government also proposed exempting 100 percent export-oriented compliant garment factories from mandatory annual bond audits. In line with the RMG sector, the validity of general bonds for fully export-oriented leather goods, footwear, towel, linen and home textile manufacturers will be extended from one year to three years.
The finance minister also proposed removing limits on one-time raw material stockholding in bonded warehouses and reducing the advance requirement for obtaining Utilisation Permission (UP) from 48 hours to 24 hours before shipment.
To support export diversification, a new bonded warehouse notification will allow duty-free imports of raw materials for the jewellery industry and facilitate transparent, regulated exports of finished products.
The government will also allow 10 additional export-oriented sectors to import raw materials duty-free against bank guarantees. For businesses importing inputs under this arrangement and exporting finished products, the minimum 30 percent value-addition requirement will be abolished.
The government aims to double the rate of goods clearance under the System-Based Self-Assessment process for Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) enterprises.
To verify the quality and conformity of imported goods, customs authorities will be permitted to use not only government laboratories but also Bangladesh Accreditation Board-accredited private laboratories recognised under ISO standards.
The government also proposed extending the customs duty exemption on chemicals imported by export-oriented factories for operating effluent treatment plants (ETPs) until June 30, 2027.
