There is no separate regulatory body to regulate e-commerce in countries like the United States. The traders of this sector have expressed the view that it is possible to bring discipline in e-commerce by making the Department of Consumer Protection more effective without any such separate body in the country.
They made the remarks at a virtual meeting hosted by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a private research organization, on Saturday. According to them, the lawyers who joined the meeting also agreed.
They said it would be easier to deal with the situation if there was coordination among government agencies as well as monitoring the implementation of existing laws.
In the virtual meeting on ‘Challenges of e-commerce sector’ conducted by CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun, CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan, Lawyer Tanjib Ul Alam, Managing Director of BRAC Bank Selim RF Hossain, Founder of BD Jobs, Fahim Mashroor, Founder and CEO of Chaldal.com Wasim Alim, Shop Up Chief of Staff Ziaul Haque, Managing Director of Assix BD Afsana Asif and e-Cab General Secretary Abdul Wahed Tamal exchanged their views.
In his speech, economist and researcher Rehman Sobhan said that there is a serious lack of good governance behind the fraud in the name of e-commerce. He also termed its growing condition as injustice.
Barrister Tanjib-ul-Alam blamed the practical weakness of the existing law for the current situation, saying the existing law is the solution to all problems. This would not have happened if they had acted in time.
Selim RF Hossain, Managing Director of BRAC Bank, thinks that a class of ‘greedy’ people, not buyers, are now in trouble.
On the other hand, e-Cab General Secretary Abdul Wahed Tamal has pointed out the current situation as a lack of coordination among the concerned stakeholders including the Department of Consumer Protection, Ministry of Commerce and Bangladesh Bank.
“We told the government three years ago that such a complication could arise,” he said. We talked about launching escrow service. The government was informed about the lack of transparency in e-commerce. Evaly and others have a lot of problems with business models. But no action was taken then.
However, Wasim Alim, CEO of Chaldal.com, said that the government did not need to take the initiative to set up a new regulatory body to regulate e-commerce.
“I’ve been working in this sector for eight years,” he says. The crisis we have seen at this time is not new. There are other sectors as well. Moreover, there is no separate regulatory body in countries like the United States to control e-commerce. I hear that the government will form a separate regulatory body to restore order in e-commerce. This will make e-commerce more difficult. It will be more effective to increase surveillance through the existing agencies of the government.
Similarly, Ajker Deal CEO Fahim Mashroor said that in order to bring discipline in e-commerce, the Department of Consumer Protection needs to be more effective. It is time to hold the organization accountable. Need to strengthen them. I do not want a new regulatory body in the country for that.
Agreeing with the elders, Shopup Chief of Staff Ziaul Haque said the situation could be easily avoided if the allegations against the companies were monitored and the gateways or channels through which payments were made were investigated. Basically, there is no need for any new law or regulatory body if the existing laws are applied.
