Importing cosmetics: 25% customs duty on every line, 64% to 189% in tax
Chapter 33 — essential oils, perfumery and cosmetics — is the clearest demonstration in the whole Bangladesh tariff of a single principle: customs duty is not what decides your bill. Every one of the 33 lines in this chapter carries exactly 25% customs duty. Not one deviates. Yet the Total Tax Incidence runs from 64.25% to 189.2%.
Nearly a three-fold spread, with the headline rate held constant. If you are quoting a landed cost off the customs duty column, chapter 33 will embarrass you.
The chapter splits into two halves
The first half is industrial input. The second half is finished consumer product. The tariff treats them as different worlds.
Headings 3301 and 3302 cover essential oils, resinoids and odoriferous mixtures — the raw materials a local manufacturer buys to make something else. All 11 lines sit at 64.25% TTI: CD 25%, SD 0%, VAT 15%, AIT 5%, RD 5%, AT 7.5%. That is the tariff's ordinary manufactured-goods setting, the same figure a smartphone carries.
Headings 3303 to 3307 cover what reaches a shelf: perfume, make-up, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, shaving foam. Here supplementary duty arrives, regulatory duty doubles from 5% to 20%, and the arithmetic changes character entirely.
The supplementary duty ladder
Four distinct SD bands operate across the consumer half, and they map almost perfectly onto how discretionary the product is:
- SD 0% — dental floss (33062000), 82.63% TTI
- SD 20% — toothpaste (33061000) and other oral hygiene, 118.15%
- SD 30% — shaving preparations, deodorants, bath preparations, agarbatti (33071000 and the rest of heading 3307), 135.91%
- SD 45% — all eight make-up lines of heading 3304, including lipstick (33041000) and eye make-up, 162.56%
- SD 60% — the four hair-preparation lines of heading 3305: shampoo (33051000), hair lacquer, straightening and perming preparations, 189.2%
Shampoo is the most heavily taxed thing in chapter 33. On an assessable value of BDT 1,000,000 you would pay roughly BDT 1,892,000 in duty and taxes — close to twice the value of the goods.
Perfume is the odd one out, and it is worth understanding why
Perfumes and toilet waters (33030000) carry SD 30%, the same as shaving foam. On that basis you would expect 135.91%. The published figure is 150.91%.
The difference is advance income tax. Every other line in the chapter is at AIT 5%. Perfume alone is at AIT 20% — a 15-point premium that lands directly on the assessable value, and 15 points is exactly the gap.
This matters for a reason beyond perfume. AIT is an advance against your income tax liability, not a cost in the way customs duty is. A trading company with assessable profits recovers it at assessment. So perfume's headline 150.91% overstates the real burden relative to a 135.91% deodorant more than the 15-point gap suggests. We cover that distinction in full in which import taxes you can actually recover.
A worked example: two shipments, same invoice value
Suppose you import BDT 2,000,000 of essential oil concentrate to blend locally, and a competitor imports BDT 2,000,000 of finished shampoo.
- Your concentrate (33021090, 64.25%): approximately BDT 1,285,000 in duty and taxes
- Their shampoo (33051000, 189.2%): approximately BDT 3,784,000
A difference of about BDT 2,499,000 on identical invoice values. The entire gap is created by SD rising from 0% to 60% and RD from 5% to 20%. That is not an accident of drafting — it is deliberate protection for domestic blending and filling operations, and it is the single most important commercial fact in this chapter.
Where classification disputes actually happen here
Three boundaries generate most of the argument:
Cosmetic versus pharmaceutical. A medicated shampoo, an anti-acne cream, a fluoride gel — is it chapter 33 at up to 189.2%, or chapter 30 at pharmaceutical rates? The distinction turns on therapeutic claims, composition and sometimes registration status. The gap is large enough that it is worth settling before the goods ship, not at the port.
Make-up versus skin care. Both sit in heading 3304 at 162.56%, so in Bangladesh this particular argument costs you nothing. Note it only because it matters elsewhere and importers sometimes carry the worry across.
Soap is not in chapter 33. Bar soap, liquid soap and most washing preparations fall in chapter 34. Shower gel marketed as a body wash is a genuinely contested line between the two. Do not assume it follows the shampoo on the same shipment.
The most uniformly taxed chapter in the tariff
Chapter 33 has a property almost no other chapter shares. All 33 of its lines carry customs duty at exactly 25%, and all 33 carry regulatory duty. There is no concessionary band, no industrial-input rate, no exempt category — not one line below 64.25%.
| Measure | Chapter 33 | Whole tariff |
|---|---|---|
| Lines | 33 | 7,469 |
| Lowest TTI | 64.25% | 1% |
| Highest TTI | 189.2% | 1007.5% |
| Average TTI | 122.71% | 61.08% |
| Lines at CD 25% | 33 of 33 | 3,366 |
| VAT-exempt lines | 0 | 756 |
The chapter average of 122.71% is double the all-tariff average. Cosmetics and toiletries are treated as discretionary consumer goods without exception, and the schedule does not pretend otherwise.
This has one useful consequence for planning. In most chapters the customs duty column varies and you must find your exact line before you can estimate anything. Here the customs duty is always 25%, so the only variable that matters is supplementary duty. Identify the SD band and you have the answer.
The four supplementary duty bands
| SD | Lines | Typical goods | Resulting TTI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 12 | Essential oils, raw aromatic inputs | 64.25% |
| 20% | 2 | Intermediate preparations | 96.1% |
| 30% | 7 | Perfumes, room deodorisers | 135.91–150.91% |
| 45% | 8 | Make-up, skin care | 162.56% |
| 60% | 4 | Hair preparations | 189.2% |
The ordering repays a moment's attention. Hair preparations are taxed more heavily than perfume. Shampoo at 33051000 reaches 189.2% while perfume at 33030000 sits lower. Nothing about luxury explains that; perfume is the more obviously discretionary product.
The likely explanation is domestic manufacturing. Bangladesh has a substantial local shampoo, soap and hair-care industry, and 60% supplementary duty on imported competitors protects it. Perfume has less domestic production to protect. Supplementary duty in this chapter tracks local industrial capacity more closely than it tracks luxury.
Where the essential oils sit
The twelve lines at 64.25% are almost all essential oils — orange at 33011200, lemon at 33011300, peppermint at 33012400. These are the raw inputs that local manufacturers buy to make the finished products the chapter otherwise taxes at 162–189%.
That is the same escalation ladder visible in textiles: inputs at the bottom, finished consumer goods at the top, and roughly 125 percentage points of difference between them. Importing the ingredients is viable; importing the finished bottle is not meant to be.
Practical points before you commit
Check the exact 8-digit code, not the heading. Heading 3306 alone spans 82.63% to 118.15% depending on whether the item is floss or paste.
Remember that RD jumps from 5% to 20% the moment you cross from input to finished product, and that RD feeds the VAT and AT bases. A 15-point rise in RD costs you considerably more than 15 points of TTI.
And verify the figure for your own code before quoting. Look it up in chapter 33 and read the full breakdown on the product page. Classification, valuation and any applicable SRO exemption are matters to settle with your C&F agent — the rates here are the published tariff, which is the starting point rather than the final word.