The government will go ahead with the long-awaited launch of the National Equipment Identity Register (NEIR) on December 16, but has granted mobile phone importers and traders a final three-month grace period – until the end of March 2026 – to sell handsets brought into Bangladesh through duty evasion.
The concession emerged from a tense meeting held on Wednesday, December 10, at the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, chaired by Secretary Abdun Naser Khan.
Senior officials from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), including Commissioner Mahmud Hossain and Spectrum Division Director General Brig Gen Md Aminul Haque, attended alongside leaders of the Mobile Phone Industry Owners Association of Bangladesh (MIOB) and Mobile Business Community Bangladesh (MBCB).
According to a senior official present who spoke on condition of anonymity, trader representatives initially demanded a six-month postponement of the NEIR rollout.
The request was rejected, but the government agreed to extend the window for clearing existing stocks of undeclared or duty-evaded devices by three months beyond the original deadline.
“The government has made it absolutely clear: NEIR will be activated on December 16 as planned. After March, there will be no further scope to sell handsets imported by evading customs duty,” the official said.
Trader leaders declined to comment immediately, stating they would announce their next steps only after receiving formal written notification from the government.
Minutes after the meeting ended, however, hundreds of mobile phone retailers and employees under the MBCB banner blocked the busy SAARC Fountain intersection in Karwan Bazar, bringing traffic to a complete standstill during the evening rush hour.
Protesters set fire to tyres and used hand-held loudspeakers to chant slogans, many directed personally against Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT.
Mohammad Akkas Ali, Assistant Commissioner (Tejgaon Zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, confirmed that the blockade had paralysed vehicle movement in the area and caused severe congestion for office-goers heading home.
The NEIR system, designed to register every mobile handset’s unique IMEI number and block illegally imported or counterfeit devices from local networks, has faced fierce resistance from sections of the grey-market trade since it was first announced.