Govt mulls tougher penalty for e-commerce frauds

The government is going to amend the Money Laundering Act and the Digital Security Act to ensure tough punishment to Evaly, Eorange, Dhamaka Shopping and others who have swindled crores of taka out of customers with unreal offers on products.

"Under the two existing laws, it will not be possible to keep the fraud accused like Evaly's Mohammad Rassel behind bars for long. As decided by the law minister, the two laws will be amended by incorporating provisions of harsher punishment so perpetrators get proper punishment," Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said on Wednesday.

Law Minister Anisul Huq, Home Minister Md Asaduzzaman Khan, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud, Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed and other top government officials yesterday held a high-level meeting to decide on necessary actions against the e-commerce companies that defrauded customers.

After the meeting, Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh said to streamline the e-commerce business, an e-commerce regulatory authorities and a central complaint cell will be formed. Besides, a digital commerce act will also be enacted as soon as possible. The companies that have cheated customers will be prosecuted as per the law of the land. For this, the two laws require amendments.

Evaly's Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin and Eorange's owners have been arrested for their failure to pay off their respective liabilities to customers and merchants.

A money laundering case has been filed against Dhamaka Shopping and all involved with it are now traceless, Tipu Munshi said, adding, "Alesha Mart is still running its activities, which is under our observation." 

"If the accused companies, including Evaly, have assets elsewhere and they inform us of their plan to sell those assets to meet their debts, we will consider," the commerce minister said.

The minister also said the government will not take the responsibility of the deceived customers who paid the e-commerce companies in advance out of greed and avarice to get products on very high discounts. 

The government neither has any stake on their profits, nor on their losses, he added.

"Evaly, Destiny and Jubok - neither of them has assets to pay off their liabilities. Evaly have splurged on promotions and sponsorships. Alesha Mart is still doing so. We will try our best to ensure that customers are not deceived by it."

Everyone has to avail a unique identification number from the commerce ministry, Tipu Munshi said.

The government has now no plan to shut any e-commerce company only because of irregularities by 10 to 12 errant companies, the commerce minister said.

At the meeting, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said a law needs to be enacted to discipline the e-commerce sector. It is important to take steps so that no one in the country is deceived by any e-commerce platforms.

Law Minister Anisul Huq said there should be a rule of keeping security money for running e-commerce businesses. The bigger the company will be, the higher the amount will be. 

Information Minister Hasan Mahmud suggested forming a strong regulatory authority to strengthen e-commerce monitoring.

After a meeting of the cabinet committee on public purchase, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters that the commerce ministry will have to take the primary responsibility to support the customers conned by some rogue e-commerce firms who secured clearances from it.

Regarding the finance minister's comment on the commerce ministry's responsibility for frauds committed by e-commerce platforms, Tipu Munshi said, "We have arranged the meeting because we have obligations. We [commerce ministry] do not want to escape those obligations."

According to the minister, transactions worth Tk6,000 crore took place in the e-commerce sector before the introduction of the escrow service on 4 June.

Following its introduction, products worth Tk400 crore have been ordered through the service and Tk200 crore has been transacted.

Earlier, Tipu Munshi requested people to control their urge of buying products at low prices from e-commerce platforms to prevent fraudulent incidents like those by Evaly and Eorange.

Evaly received advance payments by luring people with heavy discounts on products on its site and promising delivery within 7-45 days. Many buyers, however, are yet to receive the items they ordered.

The Rapid Action Battalion recently arrested the CEO and chairman of Evaly following a case filed by a customer on allegation of money embezzlement. Later, two more cases were filed against the couple.

Besides, another e-commerce platform, Eorange, followed the same business model. They were not delivering products to customers or not returning the money paid against the orders over the past few weeks. Top officials of the controversial online merchants are already in jail.