E-commerce firms to get unique IDs from next month
The government took the initiative to make a resilient digital commerce ecosystem
E-commerce firms operating in the country either based on websites or social media will get unique business identification numbers (IDs) from the next month, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak has said.
"The government is going to bring all the digital businesses under an umbrella with issuing the unique IDs from February. The move will help the e-commerce firms become more viable," he told a programme at the ICT Division office in the capital yesterday.
The event was arranged to review the progress of the platforms, which the Ministry of Commerce with technical support from the ICT Division is developing to monitor the digital business in a more convenient way.
Although the initiative was taken late last year initially for e-commerce businesses following a spate of scams in a number of e-commerce companies including Evaly, the ministry later planned to include all traditional businesses in the system in phases.
The state minister said all digital traders, including Facebook-based ones, must register for the unique IDs soon.
"Customers will have a way to complain if they face any irregularity from the e-commerce firms, and we will settle the issues through the Central Logistics Management System (CLMS), which will also be rolled out in February."
Besides, the government would launch a digital inter-transaction platform called "Binimoy" in March and the Central Logistics Tracking Platform (CLTP) within the next six months, Palak said, in a bid to develop a secured and rich digital commerce ecosystem in the country.
The state minister expressed his hope that the moves would help overcome the challenges including lack of trust, credibility and transparency in the digital businesses.
The review meeting was chaired by ICT Division Senior Secretary NM Ziaul Alam while Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury, its Technical Head Rezwanul Haque Jami, e-Cab Director and Co-Founder of Chaldal Zia Ashraf, Commerce Ministry's E-Commerce Cell Joint Secretary Saeed Ali, and representatives from other ministries and e-commerce platforms were present.
For securing a unique business ID, a business should have a business identification number (BIN), and tax identification number (TIN) from the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Officials familiar with the matter said it would also help the NBR collect tax from the businesses.
