43.3% Import Tax on Mobile Phone! How Logical is this?

[DYING_S0UL]

The title implies the subject. I would like to know your opinion, what do you all think? Do you guys have this much TAX on mobile devices in your places?

To sum up, recently the tax for imported mobile devices were reduced to 43.3% here at Bangladesh. Previously it was 61%. Can you imagine how high it was? You are paying almost more than half of the original price on TAX. While a locally manufactured (not manufactured, rather assembled) device has only 5% TAX (previously 10%). Do you think it's fair to have this level of difference margin? This is one of the reasons we have a "grey market" here, where retailers sell what is known as unofficial phones. Phones for which TAX wasn't given. But there is a catch to it. By default when you are traveling from abroad, you are allowed to bring 3 devices duty free afaik (1 your personal, 2 new). With this and many other legal channels, these phones enter our market. And to be honest, I don't believe these people want to bypass TAX or anything, the system forced them, made it unbearable with this much TAX, not to mention the official process of importing phones here is very complicated. Even if they wanted to legally, they cannot, the current rule only favors the official brands. We are already paying a high TAXs on everything, the economy here is bad, and as a consumer myself, I am not in any position to buy my dream phone with a burden this high. Personally, if I could find the device that I want in the official marketplace, I would buy it. But these assembly lines aren't capable enough. The model they (official) supply aren't good enough for me. Imagine you wanna buy a flagship level phone but the model never got officially launched here, you simply cannot. You have to go to the unofficial marketplace.

IMO, if the govt reduced the TAX to a bearable amount like 15-20% and made the importation process less complicated, it would create a healthy market. But unfortunately NOO. With all these issue on hand they have recently implemented a very ineffective buggy NEIR (National Equipment Identity Register) system that will make these unofficial phone sellers go unemployed. This is a part of bigger syndicate I believe. With retailers gone, 9 official mobile device company will control the whole market, giving consumers less freedom of choices. Personally I don't wanna use their shitty ass devices, with low quality less flagship hardware. You might fine a lot of things if you google, but as a regular consumer here, I know for a fact why this untested new NEIR was implemented, to favor these 9 company. They will be monoploying the whole mobile industry. This is the truth. Now what's the issue with this NEIR, you might ask! Simply put you won't be able to use unofficial phones anymore, the sim's won't work, if it wasn't added to the database before.

I know I have said a lot of things, went to different plots, stories, but this is relevant to understand the whole situation. Mobile phones are only one of the most basic needs in this current world. And now what's happening here is unfair imo. The unofficial sellers will be homeless. They have already been protesting for 8 days now, while many key figures were arrested unjustly. Previously they wanted 3 months of times (a grace period) to sell these already stocked devices, and the authority had given them assurance that this will be implemented on march. But out of nowhere, they broke their promise and hastily implemented it.

Move to the appropriate board if needed.

I asked chatgpt and this is what I found. And as it seems, Bangladesh ranks no 1 on the highest TAX rate, despite reducing it recently. LOL, that's just hilarious, a complete joke.  

[bitmover]

The title implies the subject. I would like to know your opinion, what do you all think? Do you guys have this much TAX on mobile devices in your places?

To sum up, recently the tax for imported mobile devices were reduced to 43.3% here at Bangladesh. Previously it was 61%. Can you imagine how high it was?

Typical day in life of any Brazilian 

Basically any technology gadget ranges from 40-100% taxes.



Poor countries aren't poor because Europeans stolen our goods or whatever... Our country is poor because we are rules by idiots and corrupted politicians.

[DYING_S0UL]

The title implies the subject. I would like to know your opinion, what do you all think? Do you guys have this much TAX on mobile devices in your places?

To sum up, recently the tax for imported mobile devices were reduced to 43.3% here at Bangladesh. Previously it was 61%. Can you imagine how high it was?

Typical day in life of any Brazilian  

Basically any technology gadget ranges from 40-100% taxes.



Poor countries aren't poor because Europeans stolen our goods or whatever... Our country is poor because we are rules by idiots and corrupted politicians.

And at the end of the day, these corrupt high officials flee the country with millions-billions of laundered money, crippling the entire economy of the country (this is what we saw at the previous dictators era). These idiots aren't able to stop this corruption, but they are eager to kick poor people out of their employment. We, the people, are always the collateral damage. Leaders changes, power shifts, but corruption? Nah, that is rooted in everyone with power here.

We aren't poor because we have less money, we are poor because our money is hidden in black, these high official MF avoiding taxes. stealing from the public, causing high price hike in everything. Even with unofficial phones, these sellers are contributing to our economy, and with 15–20% TAX, they would more, but what the govt doing now is threatening them with a knife at their neck. They will have no choice but to hang themselves.

[EFS]

That's nothing. Check out Turkish taxes on mobile phones.

For example, iPhone 17 Pro Max 256 GB prices:
USA sale price: $1294
Türkiye sale price: 120.000 TL ($2790)
Source

We call this buying one phone for yourself and one phone for the state. The situation is much more serious with cars. When you buy one car for yourself, you pay taxes equal to the price of 2 cars. Unfortunately, there is almost no tax awareness among the public and there is a large base that approves everything the government does. For this reason, no matter how much we oppose it nothing changes.

[Bitcoin Smith]

Government will simply claim that they want their local companies to get the sales not someone from the developed countries, but as a result the people will be affected. Almost in India the importing car is just for the luxury, people will be forced to pay around 300% of it's actual cost in different combination of tax that is why Rools Royce are much lesser in India because there is no point in spending 4x money to buy a product. And Elon tried hard and influenced Indian government to reduce that tax but no improvement at all, so he has to make Tesla in India if he wants to compete with the market here.

[leonair]

Smart phones are a very important tool for everyone these days and the government gets a huge tax from them but it should never be more than 20%. The issue that op has mentioned here is that a huge tax is being imposed. This will create more confusion among the people of this country and people will think more about tax evasion. Because when you have to buy a mobile device with such a high tax, the price of that device will automatically increase a lot which is a injustice for the people of that country.

[DYING_S0UL]

That's nothing. Check out Turkish taxes on mobile phones.

For example, iPhone 17 Pro Max 256 GB prices:
USA sale price: $1294
Türkiye sale price: 120.000 TL ($2790)
Source

We call this buying one phone for yourself and one phone for the state. The situation is much more serious with cars. When you buy one car for yourself, you pay taxes equal to the price of 2 cars. Unfortunately, there is almost no tax awareness among the public and there is a large base that approves everything the government does. For this reason, no matter how much we oppose it nothing changes.

What the f*ck!!!
I mean why!!! What could possibly make the government go this extent. This is just broad daylight robbery. It makes absolutely no sense for me to me buy with this amount. I would rather use a 2nd hand broken device than pay this shit.

Btw, only taxation wasn't the only concern of my topic. Impose TAX, but why the discrimination, why favoritism? Why this much gap in the tax rate? While official phone companies sell their shitty low spec models with increased prices despite the reduction, the unofficial phone sellers won't even be able to sell anything. They will have to find other means to earn. I mean why would one group get all the benefits while another suffers in agony?

Government will simply claim that they want their local companies to get the sales not someone from the developed countries, but as a result the people will be affected. Almost in India the importing car is just for the luxury, people will be forced to pay around 300% of it's actual cost in different combination of tax that is why Rools Royce are much lesser in India because there is no point in spending 4x money to buy a product. And Elon tried hard and influenced Indian government to reduce that tax but no improvement at all, so he has to make Tesla in India if he wants to compete with the market here.

This is all lies, yes a part of it might be true. This whole mess could have solved peacefully, talking with mobile business owners. But they intentionally escalated the whole situation. showing partiality. Give them at least grace period to sell of their already stocked phones, and reduce the TAX to a bearable amount, this is what these small business owner wanted from the very start. But they didn't gave them any time. I know for a fact, there were corruption that lead to this. The high officials surely are corrupt. They are taking sides with this official sellers aka syndicates. Because of them you won't be able to chose from your list, you will be given a limited choices.

For example, afaik, Vivo x200 ultra cannot be found on Vivo's official site in BD. You will only see their base variant, not ultra. So again, you have to go to the 3rd party retailers. But now with unofficial gone, I don't see how you can buy the ultra varient. I mean vivo, oficially isn't providing it here. You see the issue? CMIIW.

[STT]

The main problem I have with all these taxes is they are naturally unequal, the rich can travel and use the laws of any country just a jet plane ride away.   The poor of every country is rooted in their local village or town, too busy working and too poor to ever be subject to the enforcement of the laws they cannot escape.
  
I have neighbors who can travel to the southern hemisphere in the winter, they can avoid the cold.   I dont mind them being rich and successful, its a natural benefit they take advantage of and they are retired after much hard work so who would choose to stay in the cold in their old age with no need to.  This is the parallel I draw with taxes and overly harsh laws, the taxes are set against the poorest people who are stuck right here.
 
   People say tax the rich but the rich are travelers not bound in the same way.   Governments are bullies vs their own people in this way, its unfairly lenient on rich by default.   The only solution is to tax companies not people and till a century or so ago this is the correct system we had, we've lost too much in the modern system and people will be poor forever this way.

[Bitcoin Smith]

This is all lies, yes a part of it might be true. This whole mess could have solved peacefully, talking with mobile business owners. But they intentionally escalated the whole situation. showing partiality. Give them at least grace period to sell of their already stocked phones, and reduce the TAX to a bearable amount, this is what these small business owner wanted from the very start. But they didn't gave them any time. I know for a fact, there were corruption that lead to this. The high officials surely are corrupt. They are taking sides with this official sellers aka syndicates. Because of them you won't be able to chose from your list, you will be given a limited choices.

For example, afaik, Vivo x200 ultra cannot be found on Vivo's official site in BD. You will only see their base variant, not ultra. So again, you have to go to the 3rd party retailers. But now with unofficial gone, I don't see how you can buy the ultra varient. I mean vivo, oficially isn't providing it here. You see the issue? CMIIW.

The problem is government is the ultimate authority to decide whatever the people can do and allowed to do, so we can accept their decision as our fate or rebel against them. Recently Bangladesh faced a political crisis, and a new government took over still no changes yet?

In short term there is no solution other than paying the high tax or buy mobiles from other countries for example from Dubai where one can purchase the new Iphone and take a round trip in flight still there will be a possibility to save some money and that is the problem with living in a country where leaders lack how much revenue they are losing because of their unfair taxation.

[rat03gopoh]

High tax policies also exist in my country (although I don't pay much attention to them), but at least the government is trying to develop local industries and reduce some unemployment. Corruption is another issue that should be discussed separately. In fact, corrupt officials don't care where the funds come from.

I think this is a standard policy almost everywhere in the world.

[btc78]

The title implies the subject. I would like to know your opinion, what do you all think? Do you guys have this much TAX on mobile devices in your places?

To sum up, recently the tax for imported mobile devices were reduced to 43.3% here at Bangladesh. Previously it was 61%. Can you imagine how high it was? You are paying almost more than half of the original price on TAX. While a locally manufactured (not manufactured, rather assembled) device has only 5% TAX (previously 10%). Do you think it's fair to have this level of difference margin?

to me it is clear that the government wants the entire country to only purchase at your local companies and most likely only the wealthiest can end up buying what they want and this does not help to make for a healthy economy because your local companies will have less competitions and therefore less urge to innovate and be better

[davis196]

I'm surprised that there are locally assembled mobile phones in Bangladesh. Maybe the locally assembled mobile phones will become better than the imported ones after several years. I can see the logic behind those high import tariffs, but sometimes protectionism simply doesn't work.
If I was a citizen of Bangladesh, I wouldn't mind high import tariffs, if there was a good enough local mobile phone production. The government is trying to create more jobs for the people in Bangladesh, but the industrial policies must include more measures than just high import tariffs.

[Asiska02]

That's nothing. Check out Turkish taxes on mobile phones.

For example, iPhone 17 Pro Max 256 GB prices:
USA sale price: $1294
Türkiye sale price: 120.000 TL ($2790)
Source

We call this buying one phone for yourself and one phone for the state. The situation is much more serious with cars. When you buy one car for yourself, you pay taxes equal to the price of 2 cars. Unfortunately, there is almost no tax awareness among the public and there is a large base that approves everything the government does. For this reason, no matter how much we oppose it nothing changes.

In my country, you don’t even want to buy a car directly from abroad because if you do, the tax that the government will collect from you will equal you just waiting for it to arrive here in Nigeria and buy it, no difference. The tax impose on cars are too much and they’re always review timely depending on the manufacturing year of the car. In my country, only the rich elites use latest cars and can afford to buy brand new ones. Even cars of the 1990’s are being drove in my country just because they can’t afford a more latest one. And those that get to afford, will have to just get a used one. Phones are also taxed in my country but that of cars are more taxed the more, you can be taxed up to 50% of the money you’ve used to afford a car, that’s ridiculous.

[Die_empty]

Government will simply claim that they want their local companies to get the sales not someone from the developed countries, but as a result the people will be affected. Almost in India the importing car is just for the luxury, people will be forced to pay around 300% of it's actual cost in different combination of tax that is why Rools Royce are much lesser in India because there is no point in spending 4x money to buy a product. And Elon tried hard and influenced Indian government to reduce that tax but no improvement at all, so he has to make Tesla in India if he wants to compete with the market here.

It is not wrong to promote local industries through high import duties. But the problem is, are the local industries are producing quality products? The government shouldn't stop citizens from buying high qulaity products rather they should support local industries to compete favourable with international competitiors.

This is all lies, yes a part of it might be true. This whole mess could have solved peacefully, talking with mobile business owners. But they intentionally escalated the whole situation. showing partiality. Give them at least grace period to sell of their already stocked phones, and reduce the TAX to a bearable amount, this is what these small business owner wanted from the very start. But they didn't gave them any time. I know for a fact, there were corruption that lead to this. The high officials surely are corrupt. They are taking sides with this official sellers aka syndicates. Because of them you won't be able to chose from your list, you will be given a limited choices.

It will be wickedness on the part of the government not to give these traders enough time to sell their products. If they cannot wait, then they should buy all the phones from the traders and pay them off. If they forcefully implement this law, many people's source of income will be destroyed. Sometimes I wonder if the goverment is out to help its citizens or to make them suffer. 

[viljy]

What is the purpose of such a high tax? In support of local producers? But if they cannot meet the range of demand (they do not produce a line of flagships), then the smuggling trade will still be inevitable. If arrests of illegal traders have already begun, then most likely this is a redistribution of the market lobbied by the government. Those who monopolize the market will end up selling the filthiest phones at cosmic prices (the goal of any monopoly)...

[DYING_S0UL]

What is the purpose of such a high tax? In support of local producers? But if they cannot meet the range of demand (they do not produce a line of flagships), then the smuggling trade will still be inevitable. If arrests of illegal traders have already begun, then most likely this is a redistribution of the market lobbied by the government. Those who monopolize the market will end up selling the filthiest phones at cosmic prices (the goal of any monopoly)...

Yup, you are already on the right track. Some of these unofficial business owners were arrested, not to mention constant harassment. Now they are creating new drama, to make it look like these unofficial phone owners are the worst of the worst. Note that right after this implementation of the NEIR system, these so called official syndicates increased phone prices ranging from 3-5k. Now some might argue this is because of the shortage of RAM, but that is also a lie. Nobody buying their shit.

The problem is government is the ultimate authority to decide whatever the people can do and allowed to do, so we can accept their decision as our fate or rebel against them. Recently Bangladesh faced a political crisis, and a new government took over still no changes yet?

In short term there is no solution other than paying the high tax or buy mobiles from other countries for example from Dubai where one can purchase the new Iphone and take a round trip in flight still there will be a possibility to save some money and that is the problem with living in a country where leaders lack how much revenue they are losing because of their unfair taxation.

There have been many changes, but you cannot expect 15 years of garbage to be cleaned within 2 years! Don't you think that's some impossible thing? The dictator may have been eradicated, but its corruption is engraved deep within the system. It isn't easy to bring change that easily.

These unofficial phone sellers wants to pay tax, it's not like they are saying, we want a tax free business environment. But when the amount is as high as 43%, what do you expect!!!

High tax policies also exist in my country (although I don't pay much attention to them), but at least the government is trying to develop local industries and reduce some unemployment. Corruption is another issue that should be discussed separately. In fact, corrupt officials don't care where the funds come from.

I think this is a standard policy almost everywhere in the world.

In this particular case, corruption is involved. That's for sure. Before implementation of such a big system, there should have been pilot programs, but they didn't. They hastily implemented this. You know why? Because the election is within the clock, we have a month or two. Do you think it makes sense for these 9 official phone makers to give funds to implement this system? They are the ones funding this whole thing/operation behind the things, twisting the strings, afaik. If change were really needed, the govt was supposed to do that with its own funding. But I don't see that here. This is clearly made so that they can monopoly this business.

The most funniest part is, this shitty NEIR system is broken. There have been many reports where 100-700 IMEI were registered with a single NID (National identification number). There is no way that's possible. Many are complaining they are seeing 100-200-300 IMEI's against their NID, where they have never used this many device in their entire life. Look at how flawed and buggy shit they made.

It is not wrong to promote local industries through high import duties. But the problem is, are the local industries are producing quality products? The government shouldn't stop citizens from buying high qulaity products rather they should support local industries to compete favourable with international competitiors.

It will be wickedness on the part of the government not to give these traders enough time to sell their products. If they cannot wait, then they should buy all the phones from the traders and pay them off. If they forcefully implement this law, many people's source of income will be destroyed. Sometimes I wonder if the goverment is out to help its citizens or to make them suffer.  

No they are not. You will be getting shitty as specs mobile. Only these who aren't aware, or have less knowlwdge, less budget or doesn't know much about flagship might buy it. But I would never. Look at this below, absoulote joke. You can see this is a clone model of the real Samsung S25 Ultra. Just look at the specs man! You be laughing. Previously you could have get the real deal, but now you have to buy this shit.

https://www.gsmarena.com/itel_s25_ultra-13504.php

They are making these people suffer. They were supposed to get 3 months of grace period. This was supposed to start on march. But within days, they changed that decision and made this system online. Now they are saying, even after january 1, for 90 days all of these phones will still work. But I have no idea what will happen after that. Probably the sims won't work. Because phones that were activated and made contact within the network after jan 1, will not be added to the BTRC's database. So basically what the govt is now doing is that, throwing these small business owners under the bus.

[Mate2237]

Going through your post what I see is the government of Bangladesh trying trying to discourage import which is detrimental to the local economy, so I don't see any thing wrong with what your government is doing. The dutu of every responsible government is developing the economy of the country so anything that will lead to making sure that the economy develops is a welcome development, so your government imposing a high tax on mobile devices that are imported is not out of place.



Nothing should take the place of national interest this is what trump is doing in America. Your government is only trying to protect the local economy this will lead to local production of these products.

[WillyAp]

Buy a well maintained 2nd hand Phone.
Or buy the parts of a phone and arm the phone yourself.

[r_victory]

As a Brazilian, I agree with what bitmover pointed out. What we pay for one product here would be enough to buy three or more if we lived in the United States, since here our conversion base is the dollar (I think it must be in many countries too, I don't know).

But the tax you are charged in Bangladesh, both the current one and the previous one, is also absurd. I don't know why, but I thought it would be lower, given the proximity to the main exporters and manufacturers. I had the idea that it was expensive here, not only because of taxes, but also because of the shipping cost and the distance.

[iv4n]

The title implies the subject. I would like to know your opinion, what do you all think? Do you guys have this much TAX on mobile devices in your places?

Interesting topic. I had to check some import taxes here in Serbia, and I couldn't find any reliable info... It's min 20%, like on pretty much everything else, but some people mentioned 32%. In any case, I have an interesting story from a week or two ago. My friend wanted to buy an iPhone 15 256 GB. In Russia, it's around $700... in Serbia, it's around $1200. That speaks for itself... we are paying a lot more for the same things... and we have lower salaries and overall standard. It's pretty crazy.