Control urge to buy products at low price from e-commerce platforms: Minister
Assets of Jubok and Destiny will be evaluated to compensate affected people
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi today requested people to control the urge of buying products at low price from the e-commerce platforms to prevent fraudulent incidents like Evaly and Eorange.
"The government is also actively working on the issue," the minister said in a press briefing at Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The minister further said, "We will hold a meeting with home minister Asaduzzaman Khan today to decide on the steps to compensate affected people after evaluating the assets of Jubok, Destiny and other such organisations."
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Evaly got the money in advance payments by luring people with heavy discounts on products on its site and promising delivery in 7-45 days. Buyers, however, are yet to receive the items they ordered. The refund cheques given to customers bounced because of an insufficient fund in Evaly's bank account.
Earlier, in two different submissions to the Commerce Ministry, Evaly informed that they owe Tk311 crore to customers and Tk206 crore to the merchants.
The Rapid Action Battalion recently arrested the CEO and chairman of Evaly following a case filed by a customer on allegation of money embezzlement. Later two more cases were filed against the couple.
Besides, another e-commerce platform Eorange followed same business model. They were not delivering products to customers or not returning of the money paid against the orders over past few weeks. Top officials of the controversial online merchants are already in jail.
Most of the regular e-commerce sites faced one-fourth to one-third drop in sales during the rise of errant platforms including Evaly, Dhamaka and Eorange as their unusual discounts attracted too many customers.
