CD, SD, VAT, AIT, RD and AT: what each column on a tariff line means
When people talk about "the duty" on an import into Bangladesh, they are almost always talking about one number out of six. A single tariff line can carry up to six separate charges, each with its own legal basis, its own rate, and its own treatment afterwards in your accounts.
Understanding the difference matters for a practical reason: some of these taxes are a real cost to your business and some are not. Treating all six as cost will make you quote too high. Treating none of them as cost will leave you short.
The six columns
| Abbr | Name | In one line |
|---|---|---|
| CD | Customs Duty | The basic tariff. The headline protective rate. |
| SD | Supplementary Duty | An extra levy on luxury, discouraged or revenue-rich goods. |
| VAT | Value Added Tax | The general consumption tax, charged at import. |
| AIT | Advance Income Tax | Income tax collected early, credited against your tax bill. |
| RD | Regulatory Duty | An additional duty applied to selected lines. |
| AT | Advance Tax | VAT collected in advance, adjustable by registered businesses. |
CD — Customs Duty
This is the tariff in the oldest sense: a tax on bringing goods into the country. It is the number most people mean by "the duty rate", and it carries the clearest policy signal. Raw materials and capital machinery tend to sit at low rates, because taxing them heavily would penalise local manufacturing. Finished consumer goods that compete with domestic production sit high.
CD is charged on the assessable value — not on your invoice total, and not on the price you will eventually sell at. It is a genuine, unrecoverable cost.
SD — Supplementary Duty
Supplementary Duty is applied on top of CD to specific categories: luxury items, goods the state wishes to discourage, and goods that simply raise a lot of revenue. Cars, tobacco and certain beverages are the classic examples.
SD is where the truly large percentages appear. A rate of 100%, 200% or higher is not a misprint. Because SD is applied to a base that already includes CD, a high SD rate on top of a high CD rate compounds — which is the single biggest reason total tax incidence on some goods exceeds the value of the goods themselves.
VAT — Value Added Tax
VAT at import is the same consumption tax charged on domestic sales. The standard rate is 15%, and most lines show that figure. Some essential goods are exempt or carry a reduced rate.
This is the first of the recoverable items. A VAT-registered business importing goods for onward taxable supply can normally claim the import VAT as input tax against the VAT it charges customers. For such a business, VAT paid at import is a cash-flow event rather than a cost. For an unregistered importer, or an individual bringing in goods for personal use, it is a straight cost. The same tariff line therefore has a different real burden depending on who is importing.
AIT — Advance Income Tax
AIT is not a duty at all. It is income tax, collected at the border because the border is a convenient and reliable collection point. It is commonly 5%, though it varies by line and by the importer's circumstances.
Because it is an advance payment of a tax you would owe anyway, AIT is creditable against your annual income tax liability. Importers with a tax identification number in good standing effectively get it back through their assessment. Where an importer has no TIN or is non-compliant, a higher rate may apply and the practical recoverability is poorer.
RD — Regulatory Duty
Regulatory Duty is an additional duty imposed on selected tariff lines, typically to protect a domestic industry, to respond to an import surge, or to raise revenue from goods considered non-essential. It is applied alongside CD.
RD is the most volatile of the six. It is adjusted more freely than the basic duty structure, which makes it the column most likely to have changed since any reference you are reading — including this site. If a line shows RD, it is worth confirming the current position.
AT — Advance Tax
Advance Tax is VAT collected ahead of time at the import stage, commonly 5%. Like VAT itself, a VAT-registered business can generally adjust it against its own VAT liability, so for compliant registered importers it is largely a timing matter. For unregistered importers it behaves as an additional cost.
The practical split: cost versus cash flow
For a VAT-registered trading business, a rough division:
| Genuine cost | Cash flow / recoverable |
|---|---|
| CD, SD, RD | VAT, AT, and AIT (creditable) |
This is a simplification and your accountant should confirm it for your situation, but the shape is right and it has a direct commercial consequence. Two importers looking at the same tariff line face very different economics. A registered manufacturer recovers much of the headline number; an individual importing one item recovers none of it.
It also explains a common confusion. When an importer says "the duty was 60%" and the tariff shows a total tax incidence of 90%, both can be telling the truth — one is describing what the business ultimately bore, the other what was paid at the port.
What the columns do not show
The six columns describe the standard position for a tariff line. They do not account for:
- SRO-based concessions — Statutory Regulatory Orders granting reduced rates for particular users, industries or end uses. Capital machinery for an export-oriented factory may enter at a fraction of the published rate.
- Preferential rates under trade agreements, where origin is properly certified.
- End-use and bond facilities, which can suspend duty entirely for goods that will be re-exported after processing.
These are not edge cases in Bangladesh — for the export garment sector they are the normal position. The published rate is the starting point of the conversation with your C&F agent, not the end of it.
Next
Having six rates raises an obvious question: how do they combine into one figure? They are not added together. See why Total Tax Incidence is not the sum of the columns.