Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has sought bank account details of 11 e-commerce merchants after some of them allegedly failed to deliver goods to clients as per the deadline.
The merchants are Alesha Mart, Dhamaka Shop, Sirajganj Shop, Aladiner Prodip, Boom Boom, Adyan Mart, Needs, Qcoom.com, Eorange.shop, Dalal Plus, and Bajaj Collection.
The BFIU, a financial intelligence agency of the country, sent two separate letters between June 23 and June 29 to all banks, asking them to provide detailed account information of the online shopping platforms.
Lenders have been asked to send the information within five working days.
A good number of banks have recently cancelled card transactions with some e-commerce platforms after clients lodged complaints against the merchants.
Many customers alleged that they did not get their products in time from the merchants despite making payments in advance.
In some cases, the merchants failed to deliver products despite spending several months more than the promised deadline.
Against the backdrop, the BFIU has taken the initiative to verify the transaction records of the e-commerce merchants.
Contacted, Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan, head of the BFIU, said it was not possible to make any comment to this end given the sensitivity of the matter.
The central bank has recently carried out an inspection on Evaly, one of the largest online shopping platforms in the country, where it discovered that the merchant failed to supply the required products as per the committed time.
The BFIU, however, has not sought the account information of Evaly at this time as the merchant has already been brought under the central bank’s monitoring, an official of the intelligence agency said.
In addition, the bank accounts of Shamima Nasrin, chairman of Evaly, and Md Rassel, managing director, were frozen in August last year.
As of March 14, Evaly, which has assets worth Tk 65.2 crore, had failed to deliver goods worth Tk 213.9 crore to clients as per the deadlines.
Besides, the online shopping platform owed about Tk 189.9 crore to merchants from whom it bought products.
The BB report recommended that the authority concerned should take necessary steps immediately so that no e-commerce merchant jeopardises their own existence by creating excess liability.
Against the backdrop, the BFIU has started monitoring online shopping platforms.
Last week, the commerce ministry said transactions would be settled after clients receive their products and services from the e-commerce platforms.