E-commerce customers yet to receive Tk. 304 crore

Not all customers have yet received refunds from e-commerce companies accused of fraud. A total of 525 crore Taka was taken from the customers by 27 e-commerce companies. 13 companies have returned Tk. 221 crore 28 lakh 93 thousand 362 till August 17 with the joint efforts of Ministry of Commerce and e-CAB. This refund was made from the money held by the e-commerce payment gateway after June 30, 2021. The number of customers who got their money back is 23 thousand 565. However, even after more than a year has passed, the accused e-commerce companies still owe Tk. 304 crore to the customers. In other words, the affected customers did not get even half of the total amount due. The Ministry of Commerce is unable to specify when the customers will get this money back. However, the concerned officials of the Ministry of Commerce are hopeful that the customers will get their money back slowly as the whole matter is under process. Meanwhile, e-commerce company- QCoom has refunded the maximum Tk. 166 crore 43 lakh 67 thousand 693 out of the outstanding amount paid through the Central Digital Commerce Cell of the Ministry of Commerce. 19 thousand 439 customers have been refunded against 20 thousand 53 transactions in which the product was not paid for and the money was not returned. The e-commerce company has returned this money to the e-commerce customers stuck in the payment gateway of Foster Corporation Limited. Alesha Mart, which is in the second position in terms of payment, has refunded 39 crore 57 lakh 43 thousand taka to 2 thousand 236 customers against 3 thousand 841 transactions. And Dalal Plus in the third position returned 12 crore 23 lakh 93 thousand 889 taka. According to the sources, among the payment gateway institutions in Bangladesh, Foster Payment is working with the relevant authorities in the process of storing and returning the customer's money through the respective private banks, with the highest priority and maintaining the highest compliance. At present, it is said that most of the customer's money is reserved only with Foster Payments. Ministry of Commerce Deputy Secretary (Central Digital Commerce Cell) Md. Sayeed Ali confirmed the refund and said, 'We are working to ensure that the customers of all e-commerce companies get their money back. Remaining refund is in process. Paying other customers dues will be cleared step by step.' It is to be noted that, out of total 27 companies, 13 companies have refunded some customers but the remaining 14 have not started the refund process yet. These are Evaly, Sirajganj Shop, Needs, TwentyFour TKT, E-Orange, WeCoom, Akash Neel, Priya Shop, Aladdin's Lamp, Amar Bazaar, Asthar Pratik, BarirDokan.com, Nirapod and Infinity Marketing Limited. The e-commerce companies had agreements with mobile financial service providers: bKash and Nagad and payment gateway companies Software Shop Limited (SSL), Foster Corporation Limited and Surjamukhi Limited. However, e-commerce companies mostly chose cash and SSL as payment gateways. Although 381 crore 12 lakh taka was stuck in Foster Corporation due to Qcoom alone. And 20 crores 69 lakhs in Nagad and 89 crores 69 lakhs were stuck in SSL. Apart from this, 26 crore 21 lakh was stuck in Surjamukhi Limited and 4 crore 92 lakh in bKash. According to the Ministry of Commerce list, BDT 25 crore 85 lakh of Evaly's customers is stuck in bKash, Nagad and SSL. E-Orange customers have Tk. 34 crore 54 lakh in SSL.