Qcoom yesterday provided 20 of its customers a refund of around Tk 40.24 lakh, the first such move by a platform of the e-commerce sector mired in allegations of not delivering products against advance payments.

The return was made through Foster Corporation, one of the payment gateways brought in place by the government since July 2021 to ensure that the platforms got paid only after customers confirmed having been delivered products.

So far, more than 16 e-commerce companies have been found involved in embezzling over Tk 3,000 crore of customers simply by not keeping their side of the bargain.

Since July 1 last year, over Tk 394 crore has ended up getting stuck with Foster Corporation.

Qcoom and Foster Corporation have provided an initial list of 6,721 consumers to the commerce ministry, saying they were eligible for a refund of Tk 59.05 crore.

"The other Qcoom consumers will be refunded gradually," said Tapan Kanti Ghosh, senior secretary to the ministry.

He was speaking to journalist at a press conference at his Bangladesh Secretariat office marking the start of the refunding process.

Azad Hossain, one of yesterday's 20 customers, said he had made an advance payment of Tk 1.10 lakh in July last year for a motorcycle but neither received the product nor the money.

Another customer, Shafiqul Islam of Mymensingh, was happy to get back Tk 5.51 lakh which he had paid on July 1 last year to purchase five motorcycles.

Ghosh said any laundered money would be difficult to refund but it would be easy in case of money over which no court case was pending. The ministry will act as per court verdicts, he added.

Within the next 15 days the commerce ministry will launch unique business identification number and by February, a Central Complaints Management Cell, he said.

AHM Shafiquzzaman, additional secretary to the ministry, said a five-member committee has been formed to settle refund issues of other e-commerce companies.

Shomi Kaiser, president of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh, also spoke.