To protect customers’ interests, bKash has temporarily suspended its payment gateway service for Evaly, Alesha Mart, Dhamaka Shopping and seven other online marketplaces.
The other merchants are: Eorange, Sirajganj Shop, Aladinerprodip, Qcoom, Boom Boom, Adyan Mart, and Needs.
“We are working closely to implement regulatory guidelines of the payment system for e-commerce. Meanwhile, to protect customers’ interests, the payment gateway service of bKash has been temporarily suspended for a few merchants,” its Head of Corporate Communications Shamsuddin Haider Dalim told media on Saturday.
“When the payment system is implemented in compliance with the regulatory guidelines, the service will be launched again,” the official added.
Earlier, several banks including Brac Bank, Bank Asia, Dhaka Bank, City Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, Prime Bank also suspended their transactions with Evaly following a Bangladesh Bank report.
According to that report, Evaly’s total liabilities were Tk407.18 crore and after receiving Tk213.94 crore in advance from customers and Tk189.85 crore from merchants, the company was expected to have at least Tk403.8 crore in current assets. But it only had Tk65.17 crore.
Following the report, the Ministry of Commerce asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to file a case against Evaly over the alleged embezzlement of Tk338 crore owed to merchants, which was taken as an advance from customers.
The ministry also separately wrote to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to initiate relevant legal actions against the online marketplace over the reported irregularities.
The Commerce Ministry also issued operational guidelines for the e-commerce sector in response to the growing impact of digital platforms on the current economic progress of the country and the challenges posed by them.
