Product and Plant Licences: BSTI Certification, Boiler Registration, the Drug Licence, Explosives and LPG, the Bonded Warehouse Licence, IRC and ERC, and Food Business Registration

In this guide: BSTI certification marks licence · Boiler registration and the operator licence · DGDA drug licence and product registration · Explosives, petroleum and LPG · Bonded warehouse licence, IRC and ERC · Food business registration under the 2026 Regulations

The short answer

Run down the list once and the gaps show themselves. Do you make or import a product on the BSTI mandatory list (packaged food and drinks, cement, steel bars, cables, bulbs, cosmetics, textiles and much else)? Then the CM licence before sale. Is there a boiler? Registration, a use certificate and a licensed operator before it is fired. Drugs or cosmetics? A DGDA licence for the shop, the wholesaler and the factory, and registration for each product. Fuel, LPG, chemicals, fireworks? The Department of Explosives, online since October 2020. Exporting everything you make and importing the inputs? The bond licence from the Customs Bond Commissionerate, which cuts the duty on inputs to zero and brings a three-yearly audit. Importing or exporting anything commercially? The IRC or ERC from the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, renewed yearly. Serving or packaging food? Registration with the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority under the Regulations in force since 16 July 2026. Each sits on top of the four base licences in our checklist, each has its own renewal date, and the fees below are the authorities’ published figures with the ones we could not confirm marked as reported.

BSTI certification marks licence

The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution Act 2018 makes it an offence to manufacture, import, distribute or sell a product on the mandatory certification list without a CM licence and without the mark. The list is set by notification and its length is disputed even by BSTI: a 2025 practitioner count gives 191 products, BSTI’s own statements to the press give 315; check the current SRO on BSTI’s site before deciding that a product is outside it. The process is: application with the trade licence, TIN, the trade mark or brand registration, the product’s labels and test reports; a factory inspection of the premises, the quality control laboratory and the process; sealing of samples; testing against the Bangladesh Standard at BSTI’s laboratories; a demand note; and the licence, valid for three years as reported. The fees reported from BSTI are an application fee of Tk 1,000, testing fees of up to Tk 30,000 per product, and an annual marking fee of 0.07% of annual sales of the product (minimum Tk 1,500, maximum Tk 30 lakh) or 0.10% (minimum Tk 3,500, maximum Tk 35 lakh) depending on the tier. Importers obtain a per-consignment clearance or a licence depending on the product. Penalties under the Act as passed: using the mark without a licence, up to two years and a fine of Tk 25,000 to Tk 1 lakh; export and marketing breaches, up to four years and Tk 50,000 to Tk 2 lakh; the residual penalty one year or Tk 25,000; BSTI’s mobile courts fine and seize on the spot. Separate from certification, weights and measures and packaged-commodity labelling are also BSTI’s, and the metrology licence for scales is a further annual renewal in a shop.

Boiler registration and the operator licence

The Boiler Act 2022 (Act 6 of 2022) replaced the Boilers Act 1923 and the Boiler Rules 2025 replaced the 1961 Rules. Under s.18 no boiler may be used until it is registered and a certificate for use has been issued by the Chief Inspector of Boilers (under the Ministry of Industries); s.19 provides for renewal of the certificate, s.23 for transfer and relocation, s.27 for the Inspector’s power to stop a boiler, s.31 for administrative fines, s.34 for fees and ss.36–44 for offences, with s.38 covering use of an unregistered boiler and s.45 repeat offences. Section 9 requires every boiler to be operated by a person holding a boiler operation licence, renewed under s.10 and graded by class under s.12; the Rules set the number of operators by heating surface and limit shifts to eight hours. The use certificate runs twelve months; renewal is also required after ninety days out of use, after transfer, after repair and after an accident. Applications go through the Office’s e-service (eservices.boiler.gov.bd) with the manufacturer’s certificate, the drawings, the hydraulic test, the installation report and the operator’s licence; an inspector examines the boiler cold and under steam; the certificate issues in fifteen to thirty days when the inspection is clean. The fee schedule by heating surface was not readable at the date above. For penalties we state the section rather than the figure: the 2019 Bill proposed two years and Tk 2 lakh for an unregistered boiler and Tk 50,000 for failing to produce documents, and the enacted s.38 and s.43 should be read before relying on them. Mobile courts may try offences under s.50.

DGDA drug licence and product registration

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act 2023 (Act 29 of 2023, in force 18 September 2023) repealed the Drugs Act 1940 and the Drugs (Control) Ordinance 1982 and brought cosmetics under the Directorate General of Drug Administration. Three licences matter to a business. The retail drug licence for a pharmacy: application to the DGDA district office with the trade licence, the premises papers, the pharmacist’s registration (a Grade C certificate from the Pharmacy Council at minimum, with an A or B grade pharmacist required for model pharmacies) and the layout; renewal every two years; the fee last published as Tk 1,800 in metropolitan areas and Tk 1,500 in upazilas plus 15% VAT, with the same amount again as a late fee; these figures date from 2020 under the 1940 Act and the 2023 Act’s fee notification should be checked. The wholesale licence follows the same route at a higher fee that we could not confirm. The manufacturing licence is valid for two years and requires GMP-compliant premises, a licensed plant, qualified technical staff and the Drug Control Committee’s approval of each product; product registration (marketing authorisation) runs five years. Cancellation carries a thirty-day appeal. Operating a pharmacy without a licence, or selling unregistered, adulterated or expired medicines, leads to closure and prosecution under the 2023 Act, which raised the penalties sharply; DGDA mobile courts seal pharmacies routinely for an expired licence or an absent pharmacist.

Explosives, petroleum and LPG

The Department of Explosives (Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources) licenses under the Explosives Act 1884 and the Explosives Rules 2004, together with the petroleum and LPG rules, and put eighteen of its services online from 3 October 2020. The licences a business meets are: the storage licence for an explosives magazine; petroleum storage licences in classes by quantity for fuel stations, generator tanks above the exempt limit and industrial fuel depots; LPG storage and cylinder filling plant licences; licences to transport; the import no-objection; the fireworks display permit; and renewals of each, mostly annual. Applications carry the site plan showing the safety distances in the Rules, the trade licence, the land papers, the fire licence, the environmental clearance and the Chief Inspector’s approval of the layout before construction, because the safety distances decide whether the site can be used at all. The fee schedules were not published in the sources we could read; the portal issues a demand. Operating a filling station, an LPG shop with more than the exempt number of cylinders, or a chemical store without the licence is an offence under the 1884 Act and, more immediately, the ground on which the Fire Service and the district administration seal the premises after an incident.

Bonded warehouse licence, IRC and ERC

The bond licence is the one that changes a factory’s economics: inputs for export production enter without duty against the bond, with a utilisation declaration and a bonding period (twenty-four months for special and general bonds as last published), and the Commissionerate audits consumption against exports. Diversion of bonded goods to the local market is the offence the Commissionerate prosecutes hardest; the licence is suspended, the bond is encashed and the duty is demanded with penalty. Our customs guide covers the duty side; the licensing point is that the bond file is built on the DIFE, fire and environment licences, so they must be current before the application.

Food business registration under the 2026 Regulations

The Safe Food (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2026, made under the Safe Food Act 2013 and gazetted on 16 July 2026 with immediate effect, replaced the licensing provisions carried over from the Pure Food Rules 1967 and gave the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority five instruments: food business registration, a premises licence, a product licence, product registration and a further control for listed categories. Registration applies to restaurants, caterers, bakeries and confectioners, juice bars, dairies, packaged-food manufacturers, importers and street vendors. A licence is required for the higher-risk categories: infant formula and complementary foods, fortified foods, organic and genetically modified foods, irradiated foods, edible oil and private food warehouses. Validity is three years. The fee schedule had not been published at the date above and the Authority has been phasing in enforcement sector by sector, starting with restaurants and packaged food in the city corporations; the earlier 2023 draft regulations on the same subject were superseded and should not be cited. The registration sits alongside, not instead of, the restaurant’s trade licence, DIFE establishment registration, fire licence and Yellow-category environmental clearance, and alongside BSTI certification for any packaged product on the mandatory list. The Authority’s inspectors and the mobile courts under the 2013 Act fine and close premises for adulteration and hygiene failures; from now they also ask for the registration certificate.