The Commerce Ministry has recently been directed by the High Court to inform it by 8 November on actions being taken by the ministry on those e-commerce platforms that have, reportedly, cheated hundreds of customers even as the ministry has also been asked to submit report of plan of action of the committee — a 16-member committee was formed in the wake of public outcry over long delays in delivery of goods by some e-commerce platforms against advance payments — that has been formed recently by the ministry.
Media reports maintained this adding a bench of Justice Md. Mostafizur and Justice M. Enayetur Rahim set 8 November for passing further orders on three writ petitions that sought a court directive to the Government to recover the money embezzled by some e-commerce entities from customers even as the High Court directed the Bangladesh Financial Intelligent Unit (BFIU) to report to the court by 8 November on what the BFIU is doing about the allegations of money laundering while it (the High Court) also directed Bangladesh’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) to submit a report on whether it has any policy to collect value-added tax (VAT) and income tax from e-commerce platforms in the country.
It may be mentioned here that of late the e-commerce industry has been in news for alleged anomalies being committed by some e-commerce players even as a number of cases have also been filed by some customers against a few e-commerce players on charges of embezzling customers’ money.
