Govt to form e-commerce authority to regulate online business

Commerce, Industry, Textiles and Jute Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir on Sunday said the government is actively considering the formation of e-commerce authority to properly regulate the online business.

The minister said this while responding to an emergency notice under rules 71 of the rules of procedure raised by opposition lawmaker M Rashedul Islam Rashed of Sherpur-1 at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal in the chair.

The minister said e-commerce business is a continuous process and the government will bring the services of these registered multi-level marketing (MLM) companies under strict surveillance through establishing the authority.

In Bangladesh, Muktadir said the online business had rapidly increased particularly before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To bring these MLM companies under a legal framework, the commerce ministry has enacted some laws including national digital commerce policy, digital commerce operation guidelines and digital business identity registration guidelines.

Explaining the financial scam by some MLM companies including E-valley, E-Orange, Q-com, Dhamaka-shopping and Alisha Mart, the commerce minister said some 58,720 allegations of financial frauds have been filed by the consumers with the Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection.

The financial claim against the allegations was nearly Tk3,869 crore.

Till 2022, the country had no legal authority to oversee and registration of these online business companies. Then the commerce ministry issued the digital business identity registration guidelines and assigned the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) to provide registration to these companies.

So far, the RJSC has given digital registration to some 1902 online business companies.

After filing the financial allegations against the online business companies, the Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection have recovered Tk531 crore from these fraud online companies.

Of the recovered amount, Tk472 crore has already been disbursed to the proper consumers account and the rest amount will be disbursed to the proper consumers after necessary verification.