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. Spare parts, installation and operator training can be included in the supply contract, and are quoted with the order.