Are you a Foreign Investor? Do You Need BIDA Registration? Registration with Bangladesh Investment Development Authority BIDA is quite easy and simple process.
In order to get the facilities and the institutional support offered by the government, a private industrial project must be registered with the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), as per the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Act 2016.
Industrial enterprises are provided essential licenses and permits following registration. However, projects to be registered with BIDA must be located outside the jurisdiction of BEZA, BEPZA, BHTPA, BSCIC, as these investment promo on agencies provide their own set of incentives and privileges to investors. BIDA registration is not a requirement for commercial and trading activities, buying houses and service-oriented institutions. Investment projects are registered in all offices of BIDA, regardless of project status.
BIDA Offers Three types of investment registration:
1) Local investment
2) Foreign investment
3) Joint-venture between foreign and local investors

Commercial office registration
Foreign companies interested in establishing branch, liaison or representative offices can apply for commercial office registration.

Services and facilitation for BIDA-registered investors

The following general investment incentives are made available to newly established investments and not applicable in case of re-investments or extensions:
• Tax exemption
• Tax rebate (i.e. reduced corporate income tax)
• Import duty exemption on capital machinery/spare parts
• Accelerated depreciation allowance (for machinery/plants)
The following licenses and permits can only be availed following registration with BIDA:
• VISA recommendation
• Expatriate work permit
• Remittance approval of royalty and technical assistance-related fees
• Foreign borrowing approval
• Recommendation for Import Registration Certificate (IRC) for importing capital machinery and materials for industrial use
• Customs clearance certificate for imported machinery and equipment
• Utility connections etc.

The following are among the major privileges and facilities provided to BIDA-registered investors:

• Double taxation prevention
• Repatria on of invested capital, profit and dividend
• Remi ance of royalty, franchise fee, technical license/know-how/assistance fees
• Reinvestment of remi able dividends (treated as new investment), etc.
Industries that export more than 80 percent of their goods and services can benefit from the following privileges and facili es, regardless of their loca ons, which can be within or outside an Economic Zone or Export Processing Zone.
• Bonded warehouse and duty drawback facili es
• Openback-to-back le er of credit (L/C) and loans up to 90 percent of the value against irrevocable or confirmed L/C sales contract
• Export Reten on Quota (ERQ) that can be u lised for marke ng, overseas office establishment, trade fair par cipa on, etc.
• Export Credit Guarantee Scheme to facilitate access to foreign exchange finance for material and input procurement
• Advance income tax rebate on export earnings and exempt taxes on a specified quan ty of samples for manufacturing export goods
• Import of banned and restricted goods if deemed essen al material and input for manufacturing export goods
• Sell up to 20% of their goods domes cally, as far as such trading is se led by L/C in foreign currency and related taxes are duly paid
• Exporters in certain sectors receive addi onal benefits such as subsidy or cash incen ve upon condi ons

BIDA registration process in Bangladesh:

Investors can register their projects by simply logging into BIDA’s One Stop Service (OSS) portal. Once all required documents are provided, it takes one day to register a local or foreign investment project. However, it takes 15 days to register commercial offices since the process involves the approval of an inter-ministerial committee, which convenes twice in every month.

Below are the lists of required documents for Local investment project:

• Attachment of company’s comments as per BIDA’s requirement
• NOC from concerned Ministry/Directorate/Department in case of application concerning controlled sectors as per the Industrial Policy, 2016
• Project profile if project cost is 100 million or above
• List of directors with information on nationality & address
• Land purchase/Rental deed agreement of project.
• Updated TIN Certificate
• Trade License
• Memorandum and Article of Association (requires attestation by authorized person)
• Certificate of Incorporation
• Other necessary documents (if any)

Documents For foreign investment/ joint venture project:

• Attachment of company’s comments as per BIDA’s requirement
• NOC from concerned Ministry/ Directorate/Department in case of application concerning controlled sectors as per the Industrial Policy, 2016
• Encashment certificate
• List of machineries local & imported to be submitted in company’s official pad
• Project profile if project cost is 100 million or above
• List of directors with information on nationality & address
• Land purchase/Rental deed agreement of project
• Updated TIN Certificate
• Trade License
• Memorandum & Article of Association (requires attestation by authorized person)
• Certificate of Incorporation
• Other necessary documents (if any)

Useful links:
• www.bida.gov.bd
• www.bidaquickserv.org