Beleaguered e-commerce platform Evaly gets three weeks to respond to the commerce ministry's show-cause notice and explain the whereabouts of around Tk 338 crore that it owes to customers and merchants.

"Overall they will get three weeks to explain fully," Tapan Kanti Ghosh, secretary to the ministry told The Daily Star.

"The given time has been divided into different ways. Evaly has to inform about its liability to the customers in five days since the information should be available to them," he said.

"The company should inform us in three weeks about how much it owes to the merchants."

Commerce secretary said a letter will be sent to Evaly tomorrow and the notice period will start from then, he added.

In five days, Evaly will have to send in details about its assets.

On July 19, the 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 to the notice of the ministry, 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 for a full explanation.

The notice ordered the e-commerce site to come up with an explanation why no legal action would 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 receiving the reply of Evaly.

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.

It has assets worth Tk 91.69 crore. Of the sum, the current asset amounts 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. As a result, a large number of buyers and sellers are likely to suffer financially," the notice said.

It also wanted to know how much money Evaly received from customers since its inception to July 15 and the amount paid to merchants.