Foster Corporation from today will start providing refunds to Qcoom customers whose advance payments got stuck with the payment gateway for non-delivery of products by the e-commerce platform.

"On the first day we will provide refunds to 20 consumers and gradually to all the 6,721 consumers in the first phase," Md Al-Beruni, senior manager of Foster Corporation, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The returns will be made through the respective customers' mobile financial service (MFS) and bank accounts.

For cases where customers had not used personal accounts, it will take a bit more time for identification and reaching the correct person, said Beruni. Either way, no commission will be charged.

The two entities jointly submitted a list at the commerce ministry on January 10 detailing a portion of customers who were owed Tk 59.05 crore in refunds. They sought time to provide the comprehensive list.

A total of Tk 394 crore has remained stuck at payment gateways since July 2021 when the government stipulated that the platforms would get payments only after customers confirmed having been delivered their products.

Officials earlier said of the amount, Tk 166 crore was owed to Qcoom customers.

The refunding of Qcoom customers would be the first such corrective measure for customers of some 16 unscrupulous e-commerce platforms who are awaiting the return of an estimated Tk 3,000 crore.

Qcoom earlier sent a letter to the ministry requesting allowing to reopen their office for availing relevant data, said Abul Kalam Azad, a lawyer representing the platform.

A shortage of human resources and the office having been shut had been impeding the preparation of a comprehensive refund list, he said, adding that Qcoom was trying to come up with it.

The refunding decision was taken following investigations and verifications by the commerce ministry, Bangladesh Bank and Criminal Investigation Department of police for the last couple of months.

Officials of the three government bodies visited two Qcoom warehouses containing goods worth nearly Tk 100 crore in Tejgaon of Dhaka last week following a letter from the platform requesting it.

AHM Shafiquzzaman, additional secretary to the ministry, said Senior Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh would formally launch the refunding process.

Regarding reopening the office, Shafiquzzman, also chief of Digital Commerce Cell, said it would be done with the aid of police.

He said the ministry was also working to return all the money of customers of different e-commerce platforms as per the laws of the land.