The refund process of advanced payment made to Eorange will soon be initiated by the Commerce Ministry.
According to sources at the ministry, Tk34.7 crore have been stuck with its payment gateway SSL Commerz and it had recently sent a list of creditors to the ministry.
A total of six thousand 173 customers will get back Tk4.30 crore.
According to AHM Safiquzzaman, an additional secretary in the Commerce Ministry, the list is currently under a verification process and is waiting for the approval of a NOC from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Consumers of the rogue platform had lodged a case against its owners with the Gulshan Police Station in the capital last year following several protests.
Out of fear of owners fleeing the country, they sued the owners, while also continuing with their protests.
As per the case statement, previous owner Sonia Mehjabin, her husband Masukur Rahman, Amanullah, Bithi Akhter, and Kawser have been accused of embezzling Tk1,100 crore.
The rogue platform was also found guilty of evading VAT.
On June 8 of last year, the VAT intelligence wing conducted a raid at Eorange’s Gulshan office and found evidence of VAT evasion.
A case was filed against the platform for evading VAT worth Tk13 lakh.
They also found out that it sold products on different online platforms, but did not properly pay VAT against the commission they got from those sales.
The agency also seized other documents related to sales while searching the office.
According to the documents found at the raid, the company had sold products worth Tk245.75 crore and received commissions worth Tk3.4 crore.
The platform was supposed to pay 5% of the commission, which is Tk19.39 lakh as VAT, but they only paid Tk6.23 lakh.
During the investigation, the agency noticed that it had hidden the actual sales information and evaded VAT worth Tk13.16 lakh -- a violation of the VAT law.
Then, on August 17 of last year, Sonia Mehzabin, the original owner of Eorange, and her husband Masukur Rahman were arrested. Later, its Chief Operating Officer Amanullah Chowdhury was arrested. They are still in custody.
However, it was later learned that Amanullah Chowdhury had only worked for a month as the COO for the rogue platform.
On August 12 of last year, he filed a case against 11 people including former COO Nazmul Alam Russell and his wife Faria Subha at Tejgaon Industrial Area Police Station.
He went to examine the documents of the platform after taking responsibility and identified a financial inconsistency of Tk663 crore.
