The government has formed a new committee to bring all e-commerce firms in Bangladesh under one umbrella and safeguard the interests of the consumers and merchants who were deceived.

The 15-member body was set up on Tuesday as per instruction of the cabinet division.

It will prepare a report on how to protect the interests of consumers and merchants and submit it to the cabinet division within a month.

The new committee came as the government tries to restore the trust of the customers in the burgeoning sector after several firms were found to be involved in deceiving online shoppers through unprecedented discounts and misappropriating thousands of crores of taka.

AHM Shafiquzzaman, additional secretary of the commerce ministry, will head the committee. He was also appointed the chief of the Digital Commerce Cell of the ministry.

"I have called the first meeting of the committee," he said. The meeting will be held on October 18.

The committee will also put forward proposals to bring all e-commerce-related ministries, divisions, departments, directorates, and organisations under one digital platform, according to a circular.

The committee will carry out the valuation of the assets of some errant e-commerce firms and determine the methods of recovering money from them.

The committee will propose how the government bring e-commerce companies under the registration and licencing process.

It will bring financial transactions of e-commerce platforms under surveillance. The companies will be brought under the VAT and tax net.

On September 27, the commerce ministry formed a 16-member committee to restore discipline in the e-commerce sector.

It constituted a nine-member sub-committee on October 5, asking it to recommend whether a new law is needed to streamline the rogue e-commerce companies. The body has been instructed to hand in its proposals by a month.