The 61 codes NBR records but the published tariff omits

NBR publishes two things that ought to agree with each other. One is the Operative Tariff: the schedule of duty rates, 7,469 lines for 2026-2027. The other is the monthly Import Statement: a record of what was actually declared at the ports, code by code.

Line them up and they do not quite match. Over the six months from December 2025 to May 2026, NBR's own import statements record 61 eight-digit codes that the published tariff does not list, carrying about BDT 314 crore of declared value between them.

This is not a scandal, and it is not a claim that anybody has done anything wrong. A tariff schedule is a legal document revised once a year; a customs declaration system is software used every day by thousands of people. The two drifting slightly apart is ordinary administrative reality. But if you are costing an import, the gap is worth understanding, because it is the difference between a rate you can look up and a rate you cannot.

Three different things are going on

The 61 codes are not one problem. They fall into three groups, and the groups matter more than the total.

1. Obsolete codes — 7 codes, about BDT 3 crore

These are subheadings that the Harmonized System itself retired. The 2022 revision of the HS split several six-digit subheadings into finer ones, and the Bangladesh schedule follows the new structure. Some declarations are still arriving under the old one.

The clearest example is 8517.70, which used to cover all parts for telephone apparatus. HS 2022 split it in two, and the Bangladesh tariff accordingly lists 85177100 (aerials and aerial reflectors) and 85177900 (other parts). There is no 85177000 in the schedule — yet BDT 1.24 crore was declared under it.

The same pattern appears at 6815.10, which HS 2022 replaced with 68151100, 68151200 and 68151300.

2. Declarations filed at subheading level — 9 codes, about BDT 181 crore

This is the largest group by money, and the most straightforward. The six-digit subheading exists in the schedule, but it is subdivided into national eight-digit lines, and the declaration was filed against the bare subheading padded with zeroes instead of against one of the subdivisions.

28281010 and 28281090 are the published lines for subheading 2828.10. Declarations worth BDT 88.5 crore — the single largest figure in this whole analysis — were filed as 28281000, which is not a line in the tariff.

The second largest is 87038000 at BDT 79 crore. Subheading 8703.80 is the HS 2022 code for vehicles propelled only by an electric motor, and the Bangladesh schedule subdivides it into twelve lines running from 87038011 to 87038099, banded by CBU value in US dollars. The duty differs substantially between those bands. A declaration at the bare 87038000 does not say which band it belongs to.

3. National splits the schedule does not carry — 45 codes, about BDT 130 crore

The largest group by count. Here the declaration is more granular than the published tariff: an eight-digit code that is not in the schedule, sitting under a subheading the schedule treats as a single line.

Subheading 9612.10 is published as one line, 96121000. The import statements record both 96121010 and 96121090, worth BDT 47.3 crore together. Likewise 84186997 at BDT 47.6 crore, where the schedule publishes 84186910, 84186994, 84186995 and 84186999 — but no ...97.

Why this matters when you are costing a consignment

The practical consequence is the same in all three cases. If your declaration carries a code that is not in the published schedule, there is no published rate for it. A rate will still be applied, because the customs system holds one. But you cannot look it up, you cannot check it, and you cannot put it in a landed-cost calculation before the goods arrive.

That is a bad position to be in on a consignment of any size. The group-two codes make the risk concrete: on electric vehicles the published bands differ by value, so a declaration that does not identify the band leaves the figure to be settled at assessment rather than agreed in advance.

What to do about it

Check your code against the published schedule before you file. If you search for it on this site and get no result, that is a signal worth acting on, not a gap in our data. Every one of the 7,469 published lines is here; a code that is missing is missing from the tariff.

If the code is obsolete, find its HS 2022 replacement. The split subheadings are usually adjacent — 8517.70 becomes 8517.71 and 8517.79, 6815.10 becomes 6815.11 through 6815.13 — and your C&F agent or the customs house can confirm which applies.

If you have been filing at subheading level, identify the national line. It is the difference between a rate you can plan around and one you discover later.

Ask, if it is not obvious. NBR's customs houses answer this kind of question, and getting it right once is cheaper than getting it wrong on every consignment thereafter.

How this was worked out

Every eight-digit code in NBR's Import Statements IM-4 (commercial) and IM-7 (bonded warehouse) for December 2025 to May 2026 was matched against the 7,469 lines of the Operative Tariff 2026-2027. Codes present in the import data and absent from the schedule were grouped by whether their six-digit subheading exists in the schedule, and if so whether the declaration used the bare subheading or a finer split.

The figures are assessable values — the customs value on which duty is charged — summed across all six months and both regimes. Both sources are NBR's own. Where this analysis and NBR disagree, NBR is right and we would like to know: the contact page is the fastest way to tell us.

The affected codes are also named on the relevant chapter and heading pages, so you can see which part of the schedule each one belongs to.