The government has asked the crisis-stricken e-commerce platform Evaly to submit the list of its customers and details about the money stuck at payment gateways, officials said.
The Ministry of Commerce gave the order after the Evaly authorities sought the government's cooperation to help survive the online marketplace, which earlier faced the wrath of the government amid scores of allegations of fraudulent acts.
The locally grown e-shop mainly developed its customer base during the Covid-19 pandemic period taking advantage of the government-imposed restriction on people's movement on health grounds.
Hundreds of thousands of customers had placed orders in the e-commerce platform being lured by low price of goods offered by Evaly.
However, many of the customers allegedly did not get delivery of goods despite making payments and also did not get back money, prompting them to file cases against the Evaly owners.
Following the cases, police in September last year arrested Evaly's chairman Shamima Nasrin and managing director Mohammad Rassel on the allegation of pocketing money instead of delivering goods to customers.
The high court also appointed a five-member board to run Evaly in the absence of its chairman and managing director. The board later resigned in September this year. As former chairman Shamima Nasrin came out from jail on bail, a new board of directors has been appointed to run the company.
Officials said Shamima Nasrin recently met the commerce ministry high-ups and sought the government's cooperation to get back money that remains stuck at various payment gateways.
The money is mainly owned by the customers who had long been urging the government to return the money.
Sources said the commerce ministry officials have accepted Shamima Nasrin's plea and asked her to submit the list of customers to whom the company owes money.
After scrutinising Evaly's submission, the ministry will ask the payment gateways to release the money in favour of the customers, they said.
