Tobacco — Bangladesh
What travelers need to know about tobacco in Bangladesh. What is legal at home can be a serious crime here — each rule links to its official source.
Tobacco in Bangladesh: restricted — there are real limits travelers must follow.
Do not smoke or use any tobacco product in a public place or on public transport anywhere in Bangladesh. "Public place" is defined very broadly and expressly includes hotels, restaurants, food shops and coffee houses, airport, seaport and railway station buildings, platforms, bus terminals, shopping buildings, cinemas, public toilets, fairs and children's parks - plus their verandas, entrance gates, yards and gardens. A 2026 amendment extended the ban from smoking to ALL tobacco products and raised the fine sevenfold.
A criminal fine (not a tax) of up to Tk 2,000 for a first offence, doubling progressively for each repeat offence. The Tk 2,000 figure replaced the old Tk 300 via the 2026 amendment - most travel guidance still quotes Tk 300 and is out of date. Separately, an owner or manager of a public place or public transport who fails to display the required no-smoking notice faces up to Tk 5,000 (raised from Tk 1,000) - that is a penalty on the venue, not on the traveller.
§ Laws of Bangladesh portal (bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd), Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division, Ministry of Law - Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, 2005 (Act No. 11 of 2005), consolidated text as amended by Act No. 91 of 2026, sections 2(cha), 4, 7, 8. Amending Act record: http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-1720.html . Corroborated by the National Tobacco Control Cell (ntcc.gov.bd) and WHO Bangladesh (4 Feb 2026). FETCHER NOTE: https:// fails on this host; plain http:// works, and the portal serves UTF-16 which needs transcoding - never record these as dead URLs.