Desk Report,
Businessmen will continue to receive incentives for exporting goods for three reasons:
The government has maintained export incentives and cash assistance in 43 sectors in the first six months of the current 2025-26 fiscal year (July-December). The rate of export incentives and cash assistance for shipped goods has been increased from 0.30 percent to a maximum of 10 percent depending on the product. Following the government’s decision, Bangladesh Bank issued a notification on Thursday.
Businessmen will continue to receive incentives for exporting goods for three reasons:
A source in the government’s Finance Ministry said that the government has postponed the deadline for completely withdrawing financial incentives in the export sector by another five months for three reasons. It was supposed to be implemented from July next year (2026). Now it has been postponed to November next year.
The source said that the reason for this deadline has been postponed is the imposition of high tariffs on Bangladeshi goods by US President Trump, India’s restrictions on the export of Bangladeshi goods through land ports, and the instability in the industrial sector after the political change last year. The amount of incentives given to the export sector in the past seven fiscal years was Tk 46,715 crore. The export-oriented ready-made garment industry received the lion’s share (more than 80 percent) of this financial incentive.
The ousted Awami League government reduced export incentives in two phases last year. At that time, it was said that Bangladesh would graduate from the Least Developed Country (LDC) list and become a developing country in 2026. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations, no export incentives or cash assistance can be given after graduation from LDC. If the assistance is withdrawn all at once after graduation from LDC, the export sector will face challenges. Therefore, the government has decided to reduce the assistance in stages.
The biggest beneficiary of the cash assistance is the ready-made garment and textile sector. Exporting ready-made garments manufactured using domestic yarn to new markets will get a maximum incentive of 5.9 percent; which was 9.1 percent before June last year.
Currently, the country’s second-largest export sector is leather and leather products. Until December 31, there will be a 10 percent incentive for the export of leather products and a 6 percent incentive for crust and finished leather. In addition, 10 percent cash assistance will be available for processed agricultural products.
