Foster Corporation will start providing refunds from tomorrow 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," said Md Al-Beruni, senior manager of Foster Corporation, told The Daily Star today.

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.