The government starts assessing the status of the troubled e-commerce platforms to rid them of this crisis situation, including refunding consumers.
Commerce ministry has formed a seven-member committee to review the overall situation of these portals. It issued a notification to this end on Tuesday.
The panel intends to devise a 'matrix' within a month by reviewing the latest state of such dotcoms.
The 'matrix' will be submitted to the ministry.
It will collect a list of problem-ridden firms from the CID, SB and other intelligence agencies and prepare a report after review.
The government authorities take multiple steps, including payback of funds stashed at different payment gateways in the wake of scandals by portals like Evaly, E-orange, Dhamaka, Sirajganj Shop and their likes.
Currently, the government agencies concerned have been working to refund the money that was paid in advance by customers from July 01 until October 14 last year.
On June 30, the central bank introduced an escrow service on payment to e-commerce platforms.
More than Tk 5.05 billion was paid to such gateways against goods ordered until the issuance of a circular on October 14.
Of the money, payment gateways have already settled over Tk 2.91 billion to the online marketplaces.
The remainder got stuck with different service-providing firms, including SSL, shurjoMukhi, Foster, bKash, Nagad and Southeast Bank Ltd.
Qcoom has started to pay back its customers the money that remains stuck with Foster Payments.
As part of the move, the platform refunded over Tk 4.0 million to 20 clients on Monday. The funds were released in favour of them through Islami Bank.
Senior commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh inaugurated the disbursement of the funds at his secretariat office.
