HC rules on steps to stop money laundering through e-commerce

The High Court has asked Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit or BFIU about the steps, if any, it took to address the allegations of money laundering against e-commerce platforms

The court sought answers from the National Board of Revenue or NBR about the rules on collecting taxes from the digital commerce firms.

It also wanted to know within Nov 8 the scope of work of a 16-member technical committee formed by the commerce ministry to save the scam-hit e-commerce sector.

Following an initial hearing on three writ petitions challenging the failure and inactivity of the authorities in securing the rights of e-commerce consumers, a virtual bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the rules on Tuesday.

Lawyers Md Anwarul Islam, Md Shishir Monir and Humayun Kabir Pallab argued for the petitioners while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar represented the state.

The Rapid Action Battalion or RAB arrested Mohammad Rassel, the managing director of e-commerce site Evaly, and his wife Shamima Nasrin on Sept 16 amid allegations the company embezzled funds from its customers.

The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection received more than 17,000 complaints against other companies like Evaly.

Amidst the controversy, Supreme Court lawyers filed three writ petitions last week on behalf of the consumers.

In a bid to resolve all e-commerce-related issues, including consumer dissatisfaction and technological backlog, the Ministry of Commerce on Monday assembled a 16-strong technical committee. Md Hafizur Rahman, director-general of the ministry’s WTO Cell, is the convener of the committee.

On Sept 20, Supreme Court lawyer Md Anwarul Islam filed a petition seeking an instruction to establish an independent e-commerce regulatory authority under the National Digital Commerce Policy to preserve the interests and rights of the consumers of online business.

A second writ petition was filed asking for the formation of an investigation committee comprising a retired Supreme Court judge who would determine the financial losses suffered by hundreds of thousands of consumers who did not get products ordered from e-commerce websites Evaly, Alesha Mart, Eorange, Dhamaka, Daraz and others.

Lawyer Pallab filed the petition on Sep 22 on behalf of two consumers of Evaly and Eorange.

The third writ petition was filed the following day seeking instruction for the formation of the expert committee comprising economists, information technologists, businessmen and other stakeholders to make specific proposals to protect the rights and interests of e-commerce customers.

Lawyer Shishir Monir filed the petition on behalf of 33 customers, who did not receive

any products from e-commerce firms despite paying Tk 160 million.