HS Code 38210000
Prepared Culture Media For Development or maintenance of Micro-Organisms(incl.viruses..
Worked example
On an assessable value of BDT 100,000, the total duty and taxes payable on 38210000 would be approximately BDT 39,750.00, because the Total Tax Incidence is 39.75% of the assessable value.
What these figures mean
Prepared Culture Media For Development or maintenance of Micro-Organisms(incl.viruses.. is classified under HS code 38210000, which sits in heading 3821 (Prepared culture media for the development or maintenance of micro-organisms (including viruses and the like) or of plant, human or animal cells) of chapter 38 (Miscellaneous chemical products).
Under the Bangladesh Operative Tariff 2026-2027 this line attracts Customs Duty of 10%, Supplementary Duty of 0%, VAT of 15%, Advance Income Tax of 5%, Regulatory Duty of 0% and Advance Tax of 7.5%. Combined, these produce a Total Tax Incidence of 39.75%, which is the figure to multiply by the assessable value of your consignment.
The assessable value is normally the CIF value of the goods plus landing charges. Duties and taxes are applied in a defined order rather than simply added together, which is why the TTI is not the plain sum of the individual rates.
Recorded imports
Between December 2025 and May 2026, NBR recorded commercial imports under 38210000 in 6 of 6 months, totalling 51,106 kg at an assessable value of BDT 268,623,087. That is an average of BDT 5,256 per kilogram — useful as a rough check on whether a declared value looks plausible. In May 2026 it was the 556th largest of 4,066 tariff lines by assessable value.
| Month | Net weight | Assessable value | Per kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 2025 | 8,773 kg | BDT 48,508,654 | BDT 5,529 |
| January 2026 | 15,874 kg | BDT 70,636,351 | BDT 4,450 |
| February 2026 | 4,238 kg | BDT 18,558,343 | BDT 4,379 |
| March 2026 | 2,550 kg | BDT 20,657,510 | BDT 8,101 |
| April 2026 | 6,747 kg | BDT 38,437,527 | BDT 5,697 |
| May 2026 | 12,924 kg | BDT 71,824,702 | BDT 5,557 |
Bonded imports. A further 10,120 kg worth BDT 20,486,100 entered under the bonded-warehouse regime in the same period — goods brought in duty-free as inputs on the undertaking that they leave again as exports, which in Bangladesh overwhelmingly means ready-made garments. Bonded entries account for 7.1% of the total value imported under this code, the rest entering commercially.
Import figures: NBR Import Statements (IM-4 commercial, IM-7 bonded), December 2025 – May 2026. Assessable value is the customs value on which duty is charged, not the retail or invoice price.
Source: NBR Operative Tariff 2026-2027. The full schedule was reconciled against NBR's online duty calculator before publication; figures were last checked against NBR's live operative tariff search on 10 October 2026.
How this line compares
Chapter 38 contains 139 tariff lines, averaging 43.88%. At 39.75%, 38210000 sits below that average by 4.13 percentage points. It is the 41st most heavily taxed line in the chapter.
Across the whole Operative Tariff the mean is 61.08%, so this line is cheaper than the typical import by 21.33 points.
No supplementary duty applies here, which is the normal case — SD is zero on 78% of the tariff. Where it does apply it usually dominates every other component.