Army Equipment in Bangladesh

Every shipment of army equipment into Bangladesh is shaped by one fact about Chattogram: the channel carries a draught of 8.50 to 9.20 m and a maximum length overall of 190 m. It is a feeder port. Boxes leaving Chinese load ports tranship at Colombo, Singapore, Port Klang or Tanjung Pelepas, and there is no direct mainline service to assume. For palletised stores — clothing, gumboots, riot armour, vests — that means an extra leg and an extra set of dates. For anything out of gauge, such as a door frame metal detector crated upright or a lighting mast, the routing has to be pre-planned rather than left to the forwarder.

Chattogram carries almost everything

Chattogram carries roughly 92% of national international trade and about 98% of container volume, a record 3.52m TEU in FY26. Mongla is a distant second with a container berth draft of only 4.5 to 5 m, and Payra has no container terminal at all, so nominating an alternative discharge port is rarely realistic.

The letter of credit is no longer compulsory

The Import Policy Order 2026-2029, gazetted on 24 August 2026, removed the US$500,000 annual ceiling on imports made without a letter of credit. Industrial and commercial importers may now buy against a purchase or sales contract with no value limit, where previously a programme above that figure forced an LC. A Bangladesh Bank circular of 10 December 2025 extended the three-year usance facility to a wider range of capital goods without case-by-case clearance, so deferred terms can be discussed openly rather than as an exception. The same Order made a valid certificate of origin mandatory for any PTA, FTA or CEPA concession.

Conformity and the 1% tariff

There is no general pre-shipment verification of conformity programme. BSTI operates mandatory Certification Mark licensing on a list of 55 imported products, at a marking fee of 0.1% of CIF where it bites; the list is consumer electricals and has been expanded repeatedly, so verify it per shipment. The 1% concessionary tariff often quoted here is a capital machinery concession turning on the buyer's own status — an industrial Import Registration Certificate, regular VAT returns and, since 27 December 2023, books of accounts and challans — so do not assume it for a stores order.

Agency is a registration, not a handshake

Indentors must be registered with the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports under the 1981 Registration Order, and one already holding a sole agency needs prior CCI&E permission to add another foreign supplier.

Items are quoted from recorded fields only: dimensions, material, colour, features, weight, gender for sized garments, wash care, packaging type. The anti-riot armour is listed as stab resistant and shock resistant, with no ballistic level published for it, so where a tender states a protection requirement it has to be checked against the item before any offer is made. Spares and after-sales service are not supplied; warranty, installation and training depend on what the supply contract says.