The country’s jewellery industry is expanding in size, visibility and consumer demand — yet paradoxically, gold is barely entering the country through formal channels. Jewellers across Dhaka and other major cities are increasingly dependent on passenger baggage allowances, recycled gold from old ornaments, and — far more worryingly — stolen and smuggled gold feeding a rising underground supply chain.
The result, industry leaders and investigators say, is a sector where legitimate business is often forced to coexist with criminal networks as thefts, robberies and smuggling surge nationwide.
Gold prices have risen almost continuously in recent years, accompanied by a boom in jewellery outlets. Yet no commercial gold import has taken place in the past 12 months, according to Dhaka Customs House Commissioner Moshior Rahman.
nder current baggage rules, a passenger may bring in one 117-gram gold bar annually by paying Tk50,000 in duty, and up to 100 grams of gold jewellery duty-free once a year. These limits were halved in the 2023–24 fiscal year, while duty per bhori was doubled from Tk2,000 to Tk4,000 — a move Customs says was intended to curb misuse of baggage facilities but has instead driven up both prices and smuggling.
Despite the tighter rules, substantial volumes of gold have still entered the country through airport baggage channels in recent years. According to Dhaka Customs House data, passengers brought in 25.689 tonnes of gold in 2021, before rising further to 35.733 tonnes in 2022. In 2023, the volume dipped slightly but remained high at 31.468 tonnes. Customs officials say smaller amounts have entered the country in 2024 and the situation is same in 10 months of the current year.
Why commercial imports collapsed
Bangladesh introduced its first Gold Policy in 2018, and the following year Bangladesh Bank awarded import licences to a bank and 18 companies (later expanded to 20). Several firms initially brought in shipments but imports gradually stopped altogether after few days.
Industry insiders cite dollar shortages, long delays in obtaining approval and a heavy VAT burden as key reasons behind the collapse.
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit estimates that had the authorised import channels functioned properly from 2014 to 2023, reserves would have increased by $22 billion, and the government would have earned around Tk 10,000 crore in revenue.
The rise of the shadow market
With formal supplies scarce, the industry has increasingly turned to recycled gold and — in many cases — to gold from thefts and robberies.
Stolen gold jewellery is openly sold in specific hubs, including Dhaka’s historic Tantibazar and Savar, where items are broken, melted or reworked before reappearing in the market as new ornaments. Some are simply polished and sold as is.
Investigations by CID and police over several years reveal that shops in Dhaka, Tangail, Narsingdi, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Brahmanbaria, Sirajganj and Comilla regularly buy such gold at below-market rates, later selling it at full price. Several well-known bullion stores in Tantibazar were named in past cases for purchasing stolen ornaments.
A senior official of the Tantibazar Traders’ Association admitted that jewellers in “almost all areas” buy stolen or robbed gold, though he claimed the practice has decreased in his neighbourhood since enforcement tightened.
A surge in robberies — and a trail of deaths
The Bangladesh Jewellers Association (BAJUS) reports 17 robberies and thefts nationwide in the first eight months of the interim government, with estimated losses of Tk40 crore. Over the last ten and a half months, the tally has risen to 18 incidents, not including unreported cases.
Between January and November 2024, jewellers suffered a string of high-profile attacks:
January: Major thefts in Dhaka’s Hazaribagh, Sylhet, Faridpur, Patuakhali and Chattogram; several incidents involving 60–250 bhori at a time.
February: Armed robbers shot a Dhaka jeweller outside his home, fleeing with 200 bhori and Tk2 lakh.
March: A jeweller in Ashulia was hacked to death; others targeted in Mirpur and Jhalkathi.
August–October: Multiple robberies in Dhaka, Jessore, Patuakhali and Sherpur; one jeweller’s 175 bhori was stolen in a DB-police impersonation robbery on the Tejgaon elevated expressway.
November: Major heist at Mirpur’s Sparkle and Aban Gold, with ornaments worth over Tk3.25 crore stolen.
The violence escalated in December when jeweller Prantush Sarkar (42) of Narsingdi was shot dead. Police say he was murdered for refusing to pay extortion money.
Smuggling networks thrive
order regions in Chuadanga, Jhenaidah, Jessore, Meherpur and Satkhira have increasingly emerged as major corridors for gold smuggling to India, according to law-enforcement agencies operating along the southwest frontier. BAJUS estimates that in just a recent months-long period, at least 26 kilograms of smuggled gold were seized across these districts—recoveries valued at nearly Tk26 crore—highlighting both the scale of illicit movement and the intensity of enforcement efforts.
National-level data paints an even starker picture of the long-running challenge. In 2023 alone, authorities seized Tk101.89 crore worth of smuggled gold across the country. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) records show that between 2014 and 2023, its units recovered 925.919 kilograms of gold during anti-smuggling operations. In the first quarter of 2024—from January to March—BGB intercepted another 27.713 kilograms along key border points, underlining the sustained pressure on smuggling networks throughout the year.
Taken together, coordinated operations by police, Customs, BGB and the Airport Armed Police Battalion (APBn) have led to the recovery of 2,583 kilograms of gold in recent years. APBn alone has seized 131.11 kilograms from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, making the country’s main aviation hub a critical chokepoint in the broader fight against illicit gold movements.
Industry under strain
BAJUS President Enamul Haque Dolon claims the baggage route alone brings in “10–12 thousand bhori” of gold daily — more than market demand — but acknowledges the existence of “dishonest traders” and disguised buyers who purchase stolen or smuggled gold. Some of the gold is smuggled to neighbouring India. Rising prices have caused jewellery sales to fall by an estimated 60 percent over the past year.
Yet enforcement agencies say unregulated supply chains remain deeply entrenched. Many jewellers do not inform associations or authorities when buying or selling gold, unless caught.
The combination of import restrictions, skyrocketing prices, rising crime and entrenched smuggling networks has left the industry in a precarious position — one that experts warn cannot be stabilised without restoring formal imports and intensifying nationwide enforcement.
