Alesha Mart, the e-commerce platform that had dubbed themselves as the “victim of generalization” separating themselves from the ranks of rogue digital marketplaces, is again seeking support from the Commerce Ministry in securing bank loans, following the rejection of a similar plea earlier.
Earlier on December 2, following the suspension of the platform’s official activities for security concerns, sought support from the ministry in availing the loan worth Tk300 crore to help clear owed liabilities to customers and to continue the business.
But, the ministry through a letter had refused to provide any kind of support to the controversial platform in availing loans citing: “The Commerce Ministry cannot provide any such support in availing loans from the central bank.”
The ministry instead advised applying for a loan directly to the bank for working capital.
However, despite the rejection of its previous plea of securing loans, the platform’s chairman in its recent letter to the ministry again sought support on the matter citing the unwillingness of banks in providing loans to digital firms saying that there are no alternatives to bank borrowing for the sake of uninterrupted business.
The platform’s chairman also urged the Commerce Ministry to allow it to take in cash from funds stuck in escrow and transfer it to Alesha Mart’s account.
Alesha Mart’s Chairman Md Monzur Alam Sikder, in this regard, sent two separate letters to the Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh on Wednesday.
A senior official of the ministry confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
The chairman in the letter claimed that a large amount of the platform’s money has been stuck with its payment gateway SSL Commerz which is direly needed to settle Alesha Mart’s owed liabilities to consumers.
Earlier, Alesha Mart also claimed that they were not delaying refunds on purpose but that a good amount of their money is stuck with the payment gateway services.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, an official of the e-commerce platform said: “The payment gateways are not releasing the money even after we are providing them with the delivery confirmation.”
The official said due to this, they are not being able to provide refunds to many consumers.
He further said when they started to manage refunds from other sources, the payment gateway SSLCommerz also approved some of the refunds, and as a result, some of the consumers ended up getting a double refund.
However, the ESCROW system does not allow the seller to refund funds, instead, a third party disburses the funds to the consumer, in the same manner, the payment was made, E-commerce Consumer Association (eCAB) Vice President Shahab Uddin explained Dhaka Tribune commenting on the plea made by Alesha on the escrow funds.
“Any advance payment is held by the third-party who either releases funds to the seller on successful delivery and its verification, or if the consumer had not received the delivery, the third-party is supposed to reimburse the payment to the payee,” the eCAB official told Dhaka Tribune.
Moreover, according to an official of the Commerce Ministry’s digital cell, a list of 24 e-commerce companies that were sued by consumers have been acquired from the police headquarters to begin the refund process for all consumers, with or without police cases.
Alesha Mart’s Journey
Alesha Mart is a subsidiary of Alesha Holdings Ltd and was launched on January 1, 2021.
In a press conference held earlier this year, its founder Manjurul Alam Sikder claimed that subsidization worth several hundred crore taka was being backed by some of Alesha Group’s profitable ventures.
During the press conference, he highlighted that Alesha Mart had subsidized approximately Tk210 crore in six months with non-public fund sources, incurring a turnover of Tk1,100 crore.
The e-commerce platform also claimed back then that it had no pending payments to vendors and after serving 300,000 orders to date, it received only ten complaints under the Consumer Rights Act, most of which have been settled.
But, according to the Directorate of National Consumers' Rights Protection (DNCRP), Alesha Mart had the lowest complaint settlement rate at 10%, settling only one complaint so far.
Furthermore, according to the central bank’s intelligence unit which has been keeping tabs on the e-commerce platform alongside other bodies such as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the company now has only Tk2.07 crore in its frozen accounts.
As per the report from November 8, Alesha Mart withdrew Tk1,999 crore of the Tk2,00 crore deposited in its accounts since its inception.
Meanwhile, as per Alesha Mart itself, it still has around 7,000 pending orders worth Tk200 crore which could be higher.
As per a published delivery list by the platform of around 45,000 motorcycles ordered in its last campaign that ended in last June, more than half of the products were still undelivered which is worth several hundred crore.