Govt to ensure registration of e-commerce firms

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said the government is set to register the e-commerce platforms across the country to deter any fraudulent activities by them in the future.

Dwelling on the matter of reimbursing money of the clients who were cheated by Evaly and other rogue e-ecommerce shops, he said a commerce ministry committee already held two meetings on that matter. He, however, could not say if the government took any specific steps to compensate those affected clients.

“The committee will come up with a proposal in this regard,” the cabinet secretary told the journalists on Tuesday after a virtual cabinet meeting that was presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Cabinet secretary warned people not to get trapped into fancy offers. He said if anyone wants to sell Tk 5 lakh worth of motorbike for Tk 2.5 lakh, people should not proceed to buy it.

If that firm is not registered, it is difficult for the government to take any action, he added.

“Therefore, the government will have to monitor the payment gateway.”

He said, “We have to inspire people not to accept offers from a bad e-commerce firm”.

Referring to Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi and secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh, he said the meeting progressed well to enforce discipline for the country’s e-commerce platforms.

“The e-commerce sector is now under control for the last two-and-a- half-months because of strong monitoring by the government agencies,” he said.

Anwarul Islam said the Cabinet formed 15-member committee headed by additional commerce secretary which will submit a report within 20 days over course of action regarding compensating the deceived clients.

The government actions followed swindling of money by Evaly and some other rogue e-commerce shopping malls across the country in the last few months.

“We have discussed the problems of the e-commerce sector, especially that of Evaly. In the meeting, all intelligence agencies, Bangladesh Bank, BFIU and National Telecommunications Monitoring Center put forward their recommendations.”

He said e-commerce businesses cannot be shut down. Work on registering and monitoring e-commerce firms has already been started.

“We hope that a good development over monitoring e-commerce firms will come forward soon.”