In what is seen as a major development that would provide some relief to the customers, Bangladesh Government has decided to return to customers Taka 214 crore — the funds are owned by the customers who made the payments to buy products since 1 July but did not get the delivery — that has remained stuck in payment gateways after some errant e-commerce platforms failed to deliver goods despite advance payments.
Media reports maintained this citing Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi in this regard.
Briefing the media after an inter-ministerial meeting on e-commerce, the Commerce Minister maintained, “…Bangladesh Bank will take steps to return the money to the affected consumers within the next three months,” even as reports underlined since July when the Government enforced Digital Commerce Operation Guideline 2021 to protect the interest of consumers in the face of rising complaints of non-delivery of goods against advance payments, customers placed orders worth Taka 490 crore with 25 companies even as customers have, reportedly, received deliveries of products worth Taka 280 crore with the rest of the fund remaining with the gateways of payment service providers, mobile financial service providers and payment system operators as e-commerce platforms did not supply the products to the customers and report to the payments gateway providers.
