The central bank has been asked to reimburse Qcoom’s Tk59 crore of consumer money that has been stuck with payment gateway - Foster Pay.
The Commerce Ministry in this regard sent a letter to Bangladesh Bank's central governor through its central digital commerce cell on Wednesday.
The letter, signed by Muhammad Saeed Ali, deputy secretary of the central digital commerce cell, requested the central bank to take steps to return the money to Qcoom’s customers as decided in an earlier meeting between the ministry and other relevant stakeholders.
Md Hafizur Rahman, the director-general at the Commerce Ministry’s WTO Cell confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
Previously on December 28, the Commerce Ministry had sought a complete list by January 10 from e-commerce platform Qcoom and payment gateway Foster Payments to ensure that the consumer money was refunded.
A total of Tk394 crore of the company has been stuck with payment gateways since July 2021, after the government stipulated that the platforms would get payments only after customers confirmed having received their products.
However, the duo only provided a portion of the total list that consists of customers that owed Tk59.05 crores in refunds against 6,621 purchase orders but sought more time to provide a more comprehensive list of customers who have not received products against advance payments.
According to Mohammad Shahabuddin, the vice-president of e-CAB, Qcoom submitted a consumer list mentioning those who did not claim “call-backs” on transactions-- some of which were made through credit cards as well through different MFS services such as Bkash and Nagad.
“Many consumers who paid through credit cards and MFS have already claimed the refunds through their financial service providing institutions. If they are mentioned on the list, then they will be paid twice, so things are being sorted out in that regard,” he added.
On Monday, Qcoom submitted a list of consumers who currently can be refunded their money without any impending complexity such as that of consumers being refunded twice.
According to the Additional commerce secretary, AHM Shafiquzzaman, since vetting is not required for consumers who have not recalled their funds through credit cards or financial service providing platforms, the central bank has been asked to first start paying those individuals.
According to Qcoom’s lawyer, the platform has also taken steps towards delivering the products of some of the customers who have deposited money in advance.