Bolivia 2026 Import Duty Cut: How DS 5646 Resets Landed Cost

Bolivia’s Decreto Supremo N° 5646 — published 29 June 2026 and applied by Aduana Nacional de Bolivia (ANB) through Circulares 167/2026 and 180/2026 — does two things to the same import at once: every Gravamen Arancelario (GA) bracket in the 2026 tariff schedule drops by 5 percentage points through 31 December 2027, and the customs value that GA is charged on now counts only 10% of the freight and insurance cost instead of the full amount. Recalculating landed cost after both changes is the point of this guide, for the ocean route through Chile and for air freight alike.

Key takeaways

• DS 5646 (29/06/2026) cuts every GA bracket in the Arancel Aduanero de Importaciones 2026 by 5 percentage points, through 31 December 2027 — Aduana Nacional Circular 180/2026 quotes the decree directly.
• The same decree’s Disposición Adicional Única rewrites Article 20 (Base Imponible) of the Reglamento a la Ley General de Aduanas (DS 25870): the GA base now adds only 10% of the transport and insurance cost, not the full amount, on top of the FOB value and loading/unloading charges.
• Aduana Nacional confirmed in writing (Comunicado, 10 July 2026) that the 10% rule applies to air freight declarations too, not only ocean and overland transit.
• IVA on imports keeps its statutory general rate of 13%, expressed tax-inclusively under Ley 843 — DS 5646 does not touch it.
• Bolivia’s exchange-rate mechanism also changed, separately, effective the same week — from June 26, 2026, Banco Central de Bolivia’s Resolución de Directorio 88/2026 replaced the fixed-rate Reglamento de Operaciones Cambiarias with one built on the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas Públicas’s new flexibility regime (Resolución Ministerial 245/2026); see “Exchange-rate regime” below for the mechanism, not a rate.
• Both GA changes apply to the same shipment at once: a lower rate on a smaller base compounds, so a landed-cost figure calculated before July 2026 needs a full recalculation, not a discount applied on top.
• Confirm your product’s exact tariff heading and the current GA percentage with Aduana Nacional or your Bolivian declarant before you order — this guide states the rule, not your item’s rate.

What changed: the Gravamen Arancelario rate

Aduana Nacional’s Circular N° 180/2026 (La Paz, 17 July 2026) quotes the decree’s own wording: DS 5646, signed 29 June 2026, provides that GA rates are “reducidas hasta el 31 de diciembre de 2027 … en cinco por ciento (5%), para la importación de mercancías de todo el universo arancelario del Arancel Aduanero de Importaciones 2026” — reduced by five percentage points, across the entire tariff schedule, until 31 December 2027.

That is a flat percentage-point cut applied to every existing bracket, not a cut to a flat 5% rate: a heading previously taxed at 40% moves to 35%, one at 10% moves to 5%, and one already at 5% moves to 0%. The decree was published the same day in Gaceta Oficial de Bolivia N° 2065 (29 June 2026); Aduana Nacional’s own circulars followed on 3 July (Minuta de Instrucción AN/PE/MI/2026/0125) and 17 July 2026 to instruct customs offices on applying it. The reduction is time-limited — it expires 31 December 2027 unless extended — so a quote built around it should say so.

What changed: the customs value duty is charged on

The less visible change is in the same decree. Its Disposición Adicional Única modifies the first and second paragraphs of Article 20 (Base Imponible) of the Reglamento a la Ley General de Aduanas (DS 25870 de 11/08/2000) — Aduana Nacional’s own consolidated text of that article, and its footnote crediting DS 5646 for the edit, confirm the current wording:

“La base imponible sobre la cual se liquida el Gravamen Arancelario está constituida por el valor de transacción de la mercancía … más los gastos de carga y descarga más el diez por ciento (10%) del costo de transporte y del seguro hasta la aduana de frontera.”

In plain terms: the GA base is FOB value, plus loading and unloading charges in full, plus only 10% of what you actually paid for freight and insurance to the Bolivian border crossing — not the full freight and insurance bill, the way a standard CIF valuation would count it. Aduana Nacional’s Comunicado on the decree (10 July 2026) states the same rule again and adds that it is applied “a efectos del correcto llenado de las Declaraciones de Mercancías,” including declarations for goods that “arriban mediante la modalidad de transporte aéreo” — air freight is explicitly inside this rule, not a separate case.

Article 20 also keeps two older fallback rules that this decree did not touch: if there is no commercial documentation to support the transport cost, it is presumed at 5% of the FOB value, and if the shipment moved without insurance, the premium is presumed at 2% of FOB. Carrying the actual freight and insurance invoices still matters — they are what lets you use the real 10% figure instead of a presumed one.

The landed-cost formula, before and after

Neither side of this comparison is a worked example with invented numbers — both are the structure Aduana Nacional’s own rule describes, so you can drop your product’s real figures in.

Step	Before DS 5646	After DS 5646 (through 31/12/2027)
Customs value (base imponible)	FOB + loading/unloading + full freight and insurance cost	FOB + loading/unloading + 10% of freight and insurance cost
GA (Gravamen Arancelario)	Tariff-heading rate × customs value	Tariff-heading rate − 5 points × the smaller customs value above
IVA	13% general rate (Ley 843), tax-inclusive base	Unchanged — same 13% general rate, tax-inclusive base
Other internal taxes (e.g. ICE)	Only on specific categories (vehicles, alcohol, tobacco)	Unchanged

Both changes shrink the number GA is charged on and the rate it is charged at, and they apply to the same import at the same time — recompute the whole chain rather than knocking a discount off a pre-July figure.

Ocean via Chile vs. air freight: the same rule, two inputs

Because Bolivia has no seaport, an ocean shipment reaches a Chilean gateway such as Arica or Iquique before the overland leg to the ANB border crossing; our guide to shipping from China to Bolivia covers that routing and the ANB declaration path in full. What the DS 5646 base-imponible rule adds on top:

• Ocean plus overland transit: the 10% figure applies to the transport-and-insurance cost incurred to the frontier aduana — that includes the ocean leg to the Chilean port and the overland transit segment together, per Article 20’s own wording (“hasta la aduana de frontera”).
• Air freight: Article 20 states the rule separately for air: “cuando el medio de transporte sea aéreo, para la determinación del valor CIF Aduana, el costo del flete aéreo será el diez por ciento (10%) del importe efectivamente pagado por este concepto” — 10% of the air freight actually paid, confirmed by Aduana Nacional to apply to air declarations the same as any other mode.

Either way, the input the 10% is applied to is your actual, documented transport and insurance cost — not a route assumption. Our guide to air and ocean freight from China covers how we compare the two modes more broadly.

Exchange-rate regime

Bolivia’s exchange-rate mechanism changed on a separate track from DS 5646, in the same window. Effective June 26, 2026, the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas Públicas’s Resolución Ministerial N° 245/2026 established a “régimen de flexibilización cambiaria” (exchange-rate flexibility regime), and Banco Central de Bolivia’s Resolución de Directorio N° 88/2026, dated the same day, replaced its 2013 Reglamento de Operaciones Cambiarias with a new one built on that regime. Under the new rule, the Tipo de Cambio Oficial (TCO) is no longer administratively fixed: BCB now calculates it each business day as the weighted average of the actual US-dollar purchase transactions that Bancos Múltiples, Bancos PyME and the state bank carry out with their clients, and publishes the rate that will govern the following business day on its own website at 20:00.

This guide states the mechanism, not a figure — the freight and insurance cost you convert for the GA base above should use the current TCO you confirm directly with Aduana Nacional, Banco Central de Bolivia’s own site, or your bank, not a number from this article.

What this means for a procurement decision

A landed-cost figure quoted or budgeted before July 2026 used the old GA rate on the old, larger base — both inputs have since moved in the same direction. If you are re-ordering a product you have shipped to Bolivia before, or comparing ocean freight from China against air freight from China on a cost basis, that old number is no longer the right one to work from. Re-quote rather than adjust it by an estimated percentage — the tariff heading, the actual freight and insurance invoice, and the exchange rate your bank or importer confirms all feed the same calculation, and Aduana Nacional’s ruling on your exact product and shipment controls the final assessment regardless of what this guide states.

The reduction is also dated: it runs through 31 December 2027 unless extended, so a sourcing plan that spans that date should build in a check rather than assume the current rate holds.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 5-point GA cut apply to every product, or only some tariff headings? Aduana Nacional’s Circular 180/2026 quotes DS 5646 as covering “todo el universo arancelario del Arancel Aduanero de Importaciones 2026” — the whole tariff schedule. Confirm your specific heading’s new rate with Aduana Nacional or your declarant; this guide states the mechanism, not a per-product rate table.

Is the 10% freight-and-insurance rule new, or has it always worked this way? It is new. Aduana Nacional’s own consolidated text of Article 20 carries a footnote crediting the current first and second paragraphs — the 10% language — to DS 5646’s Disposición Adicional Única. The article’s older fallback presumptions (5% of FOB with no transport documentation, 2% of FOB with no insurance) were not changed by this decree.

Does the 10% base apply if I ship by air instead of ocean? Yes. Article 20 states the air-freight case explicitly, and Aduana Nacional’s Comunicado on the decree confirms the rule is applied to declarations for goods arriving by air the same as any other mode.

Did IVA change too? No. Ley 843 still sets Bolivia’s general IVA rate at 13%, expressed tax-inclusively. DS 5646 amends the GA rate and its base only.

Did the exchange rate change too? The mechanism did, on a separate track from DS 5646: since June 26, 2026, Banco Central de Bolivia’s Resolución de Directorio 88/2026 — issued under the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas Públicas’s Resolución Ministerial 245/2026 — calculates the Tipo de Cambio Oficial daily from banks’ actual dollar-purchase transactions rather than fixing it administratively. This guide does not state a rate; confirm the current TCO with Aduana Nacional, BCB’s own site, or your bank before converting a freight or insurance invoice.

How long does the 5-point GA reduction last? Through 31 December 2027, per the decree’s own text as quoted in Aduana Nacional’s Circular 180/2026, unless a further decree extends or ends it earlier.

Get a recalculated quote for your Bolivia shipment

DS 5646 changed two numbers in the same formula at once — the GA rate and the base it is charged on — and a landed-cost figure from before July 2026 reflects neither. When you are ready for a recalculated number, message us on WhatsApp with your product, tariff heading if you have it, and volume, and we will work the current rate and base into a real quote. For the routing and customs-declaration side of this lane, see our guide to shipping from China to Bolivia and our guide to air and ocean freight from China.