Beleaguered e-commerce platform Evaly has been given three weeks to provide a detailed response to the recent show-cause notice it received from the commerce ministry.

"Overall, the company will get three weeks to fully explain its actions," Tapan Kanti Ghosh, secretary of the commerce ministry, told The Daily Star.

The time allotted is divided in different ways.

Evaly has to inform the ministry about its liabilities to customers within five days since this information should be readily available for them.

However, the company will get three weeks to inform us about its dues to merchants, he said.

"A letter will be sent to Evaly tomorrow (today) and the deadline to respond will begin from then," he added.

Within five days, Evaly will have to send details about its assets, Ghosh said.

On July 19, the commerce ministry sent a letter to Evaly, asking it to explain by August 1 how it would settle its current liabilities to customers and merchants. Evaly's reply came on the last day of the deadline.  

In its reply, Evaly said it wanted to have its financial statements audited by a third party and set a valuation of the company. So, it needs six months to provide a full explanation.

The notice ordered the e-commerce site to come up with an explanation why no legal action should be taken against it to protect customers and merchants and prevent the digital commerce sector from any negative impact.

It also inquired about the company's business practices.

Ghosh said a decision will be taken after Evaly replies in full.

The commerce ministry's notice also asked the company to clarify the whereabouts of around Tk 338 crore that the platform owed to customers and merchants.

According to an investigation report of Bangladesh Bank, Evaly has a liability of Tk 213.94 crore to customers and Tk 189.85 crore to merchants.

The company has assets worth Tk 91.69 crore, of which its current assets amount to Tk 65.17 crore.

The commerce ministry said it had noticed that Evaly was not delivering products on time despite receiving advance payments from customers.

"The merchants from whom it gets products are also not being paid and as a result, a large number of buyers and sellers are likely to suffer financially," the notice said.