Customers' wait for refunds of advance payments, which eventually got stuck at payment gateways for deliveries not being made by e-commerce firms, is likely to be prolonged as the government wants to examine legal issues first.

The newly formed Digital Commerce Cell (DCC) under the commerce ministry has sought opinions of the law ministry and Criminal Investigation Department, said AHM Shafiquzzaman, additional secretary to the commerce ministry.

This is for the repayment of Tk 214 crore out of a total of Tk 512 crore, which can be started very soon, he told a press conference yesterday.

"We are hopeful that we can start the repayment of funds to the consumers and merchants very soon," Shafiquzzaman said after a meeting of a 15-member Cabinet Division panel at the commerce ministry.

"We will pay the non-litigants their fund and we will start repaying the rest of the consumers after settlement of legal cases in court," he said.

The Cabinet Division formed the committee last month to bring the growing e-commerce industry under regulations.

However, the additional secretary could not specifically state from when Bangladesh Bank would be able to start making the repayments.

The DCC has been working since October 25 to recover the money from the central bank's payment gateway services.

Primarily, non-litigants will get back Tk 214 crore and later consumers and merchants will get back Tk 298 crore which Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit recovered from payment gateways.

"So, the refunding is depending on the opinion of the legislative wing of the law ministry and CID as both of them are working on it," he said.

The refunding decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting on October 25.

The CID was supposed to recommend unfreezing accounts of consumers and merchants but could not submit a report up until now as the intelligence unit is still working on it, he said.

Now, the opinion of the legislative division is also required along with the CID opinion, he said.

"So, the consumers will have to be patient for a few more days as we are waiting for their opinions," said the additional secretary.

Shafiquzzaman, said the 15-member committee would submit a report to the cabinet division tomorrow with three recommendations on e-commerce business, including launching unique business identification numbers, a central complaint management system and central logistic tracking platform.