The Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA) has urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) not to issue freight forwarding licences to fully foreign-owned companies. The demand came as one of five policy proposals submitted ahead of a meeting with the NBR on licensing rules for the sector. BAFFA said the move follows renewed regulatory attention after the NBR issued a clarification in September on renewing licences for wholly foreign-owned firms that had been operating legally since before July 2015.
Not Against Investment, But Against Full Ownership
BAFFA’s former president Kabir Ahmed said the association is not opposed to foreign direct investment itself, noting that it welcomes capital, technology, employment, and knowledge transfer. However, he said unrestricted foreign ownership needs closer scrutiny, since freight forwarding is largely a service industry built on expertise, skilled manpower, and international networks rather than heavy capital investment. “We are not seeking to stop foreign investment. We want to ensure Bangladesh’s net economic benefit,” the association said in its position statement.
Other Policy Proposals
Beyond ownership restrictions, BAFFA’s submission included four additional requests. These include scrapping the 1 per cent tax deducted at source on gross billing, allowing domestic air freight rates to be set in taka rather than US dollars, and introducing a 5 per cent incentive on freight forwarding income repatriated through legal banking channels. The association also called for a modern, transparent licensing framework, saying regulatory updates have been discussed for years without a final policy being put in place.
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Investment Officials Push Back
Not everyone agrees with BAFFA’s stance. A senior official at the Investment Bangladesh Authority (IBA), formerly known as Bida, said allowing fully foreign-owned companies to operate in freight forwarding could improve efficiency, transparency, and competition across the sector. Officials have pointed to the largely manual nature of current freight forwarding operations as a reason greater foreign participation could help modernise the industry.
A Longer-Running Debate
This is not the first time BAFFA has raised concerns about foreign involvement in the sector. Industry figures have previously noted that a large share of Bangladesh’s freight business is already controlled by foreign firms, warning that continued overdependence could weaken domestic logistics capacity built over more than three decades. With billions of dollars flowing through the freight sector each year, the outcome of the NBR’s licensing review is likely to shape how much of that business stays in local hands going forward.
Summary: The Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association has asked the National Board of Revenue not to grant licences to fully foreign-owned firms in the freight forwarding sector. The association argues that local participation protects jobs, expertise, and economic benefits built up over decades, while investment officials say more foreign competition could boost efficiency and transparency.
