Free-of-Charge Samples and Customs in Bangladesh: Why No Invoice Value Is Still a Declaration

A parcel marked free of charge looks harmless. The supplier is sending you a few sample units so you can check quality before a bulk order; nobody is selling anything; surely there is nothing to declare. That assumption is one of the more common reasons small sample shipments sit in customs offices in Dhaka and Chattogram. Customs law does not ask whether money changed hands. It asks what the goods are, where they came from and what they are worth, and it asks those questions of a free sample exactly as it does of a purchase.

Free of charge does not mean valueless

Customs values goods on a transaction basis where there is a sale, and on other methods where there is not. A sample with no invoice price is still goods with a market value, and the officer needs a value to compute duty and tax. If your parcel arrives with a zero or a token value, the officer may treat the declaration as unreliable and assess the goods using reference values for comparable items. Our explanation of the valuation hierarchy shows why a truthful value on the paperwork is worth more than a low one.

The right approach is for the supplier to issue a proforma or commercial invoice marked as a sample or free of charge, showing the real commercial value of the goods, and stating clearly that no payment is due. That way the assessment is based on a defensible number and the invoice is consistent with the rest of the file. Understating the value to save duty is the exact conduct our guide to customs penalties warns about.

The documents a sample shipment still needs

The paperwork requirement scales down for small parcels, but it does not disappear. Consider these items as the working minimum, and ask your clearing agent whether your particular goods need more.

• A commercial or proforma invoice that lists each item, quantity, unit value and total value, with the words free sample or free of charge and the reason for the shipment.
• A packing list matching what is physically in the parcel.
• The air waybill or courier waybill, with a description that agrees with the invoice.
• Your trade licence, import registration and bank or tax registration details for the consignee, as your agent needs them to file.
• Any product-specific permit. If the sample is food, cosmetics, a medical device, a radio-frequency device or a chemical, the usual controls do not lapse because the quantity is small.

When a sample is not treated as a sample

Bangladesh, like most customs administrations, distinguishes between goods sent for genuine commercial-sample purposes and goods that merely have the word sample on the box. Quantity is the giveaway. A few units of each model, in a form that clearly could not be resold as a stock line, reads as a sample. Fifty identical units marked sample reads as a commercial shipment in disguise.

A commercial-sample claim is also weaker where the goods are the type that can be consumed or resold immediately, such as a carton of finished garments, cosmetics in retail packaging or packaged food. In those cases expect the officer to ask why you need so many units to evaluate a product. If you truly do need a larger trial run, it is safer to import it as an ordinary commercial consignment and pay the assessed duty than to argue about a label. See our note on personal versus commercial imports.

Courier or freight: which route suits a sample

Small samples usually travel by express courier, because the price of a courier document is easier to accept than the minimum charge of an air freight booking. Our comparison of courier versus air freight and the article on urgent sample shipments cover when each makes sense.

Whichever route you use, remember that the courier company acts as a customs broker of sorts and will ask you for the same kind of information a clearing agent would. Sending them the invoice before the parcel arrives reduces the chance of it sitting in a holding area while paperwork is chased. If duty is due, the courier will collect it from you, plus its own handling charge, before delivery. Check who bears those costs before the sample is dispatched; otherwise the supplier will assume you pay, and you will assume they do.

Sample handling from a business point of view

A sample is only useful if it is evidence. Ask the supplier to send a sample from the actual production line, not a hand-made showpiece, and record what you receive: photographs of the packaging on arrival, measurements, a written note on defects. If you later approve the sample, it becomes the reference standard against which bulk production will be judged. Our articles on the golden sample process and on ordering samples before bulk production describe how to convert a sample into a contractual benchmark.

It is also good practice to keep the customs paperwork for the sample together with the later bulk order. If the officer later compares your bulk declaration against the sample, consistent descriptions and HS classification demonstrate good faith. Our guide to HS codes explains why the same product should not be classified two different ways on two shipments.

Common mistakes and their consequences

Declaring zero value. The consequence is that the officer sets a value on your behalf, and it may be higher than the real one.

Sending a sample without an invoice, on the theory that no invoice is needed. The consequence is a held parcel and a supplier who is difficult to reach across a time-zone gap.

Sending a restricted item as a sample. A quantity of medicine, radio equipment or food does not become unregulated because it is small; the parcel can be refused or detained.

Failing to say who pays duty. The consequence is a courier who will not deliver until someone pays, and a supplier who refuses to.

A worked example: three gadgets for a bulk-order decision

Suppose a Dhaka retailer wants to test three models of LED desk lamp before ordering a container. The supplier offers to send one unit of each model free of charge by express courier. The right way to run this is as follows.

First, the retailer asks the supplier for a proforma invoice listing the three models, quantity one each, with the ordinary unit price for each, marked as free samples with no payment required. Second, the retailer checks whether the lamps carry any radio or wireless function that would attract a separate permit requirement, and whether an electronics rule applies; our guide to electronics import rules is the starting point. Third, the retailer agrees in writing who pays the courier’s destination handling and any assessed duty. Fourth, on arrival the retailer photographs the parcel and the contents, and keeps the invoice and the courier’s clearance receipt in the import file.

If the retailer later places the container order, the descriptions and HS classification used for the samples become a reference for the bulk declaration. If the samples were declared with an accurate value, the bulk invoice will sit comfortably beside them; if they were declared at zero, the difference invites an unnecessary question.

Sending samples the other way

The same logic applies in reverse. If you are a Bangladesh exporter sending product samples to a buyer in China, the parcel needs an invoice with a truthful value, a description that matches the goods, and the exporter’s own registration details. Our article on Bangladesh businesses exporting to China covers the broader picture. Treat samples as small exports with the same documentary discipline, and you will avoid the question of why a shipment was released without any record of what it contained.

The safest rule for samples is to treat them as small, honest imports: declare what they are, what they are worth, and who is paying for the trip. If you would like this handled for you, see our services, China sourcing and buying agent option, browse the shop, or contact us and ask for a quote built around your needs.