More than Tk 160 crore owed by a number of e-commerce companies in Bangladesh for breaching the escrow system is still stuck in payment gateways, according to commerce ministry documents.

The government had introduced the escrow system on June 30, 2021, amid widespread scandals of e-commerce companies taking advance payments but failing to deliver products.

Escrow is a legal concept describing a financial agreement whereby an asset or money is held by a third party on behalf of two other parties that are in the process of completing a transaction.

Escrow accounts are managed by the escrow agent, such as a payment gateway provider.

In essence, the system aims to ensure payments are made only after product delivery but the accused companies did not comply with this measure.

So far, 14 of the companies have returned Tk 364 crore while the other 13 have not made any refunds whatsoever, the documents show.

Md Sayed Ali, deputy secretary of the Central Digital Commerce Cell, said it may take another three or four months to repay the rest as the companies are yet to provide a full list of the customers owed.

"But everyone will get their money back sooner or later," he added.

However, Ali then informed that people who made advance payments before June 30, 2021, are unlikely to get any refund.

The money owed by these e-commerce companies was deposited by customers to five payment gateway companies, namely bKash, Nagad, Software Shop Limited, shurjoMukhi Limited and Foster Corporation.

Sirajganj Shop, E-orange, Wikum, Akasnil, House Shop, Aladinerprodip, Sophetic, Aamar Bazar, Needs, Sirajganj Shop, 24tkt.com and Infinity Marketing are among the companies that have not made any returns.

According to sources, Aladinerprodip and Sirajganj Shop could not return any money so far as their bank accounts have been seized.

Apart from this, there is a conflict between Sirajganj Shop and its payment gateway provider, Nagad.

Commerce ministry sources say Qcoom has refunded the highest amount of Tk 299 crore so far.

Customers of Evaly were owed Tk 25 crore, of which Tk 4.91 crore is tied up with bKash, 17.69 crore with Nagad and Tk 3.24 crore with Software Shop Limited.

Up till now, Evaly has refunded Tk 84 lakh to its customers, as per ministry documents.

Apart from this, Tk 34.54 crore owed to customers of E-orange is stuck with Software Shop Limited.

Md Al Mamun Hossain, a resident of Dhaka, had paid in advance through Nagad for goods ordered from Aladinerprodip in September 2021.

However, he is yet to get his products or a refund as of yet.

"I am in regular touch with the commerce ministry on the issue but there is no update. The ministry has to be stricter on this. Otherwise, the companies won't return the money," he said.