The Commerce Ministry said it was working on recovering another Taka 260 crore taken by fraudulent e-commerce entities as advance payments until last June, while also refund the same to the respective customers who were not delivered products even after paying in advance even if the concerned ministry had earlier decided to refund customers’ Taka 214 crore stuck in escrow accounts of payment gateways, opened since 1 July, as per the directives of the central bank (Bangladesh Bank) following reports of anomalies and complaints of money being swindled by various e-commerce entities.
As per reports, which cited Additional Secretary to the Commerce Ministry in this direction, the concerned ministry has already written to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to unfreeze victims’ accounts as soon as possible so that Taka 214 crore can be paid back.
Additional Secretary AHM Shafiquzzaman, however, did not, reportedly, specifically underline when and how the Taka 260 crore would be recovered and refunded.
