The inter-ministerial committee on e-commerce formed in the wake of allegations of largescale corruption and anomalies in the Bangladesh e-commerce sector has suggested enacting a new law and forming an independent authority to streamline the e-commerce sector even as it submitted its report to the Cabinet Division without suggesting ways of refunding customers’ money (around Taka 726 crore) stuck in various payment gateways and frozen bank accounts of errant e-commerce entities.
Interacting with the media, Member Secretary of the committee (inter-ministerial committee on e-commerce) and Deputy Secretary to Central Digital Commerce Cell, Mohammad Saeed Ali, reportedly, stated, “…we have not made any specific recommendation over retrieving customers’ money as we did not get an opinion in this connection from the Law Ministry…,” while adding, “We were supposed to submit the report by Thursday and we did it.”
As per reports, at present, around Taka 214 crore has, reportedly, remained stuck in various payment gateways while around Taka 512 crore in frozen bank accounts of various e-commerce companies even as escrow system was introduced on 30 June amidst reports that customers have paid around Taka 506 crore in advance through payment gateways against products and services they ordered till 14 October from various e-commerce platforms.
