Staff Reporter :
Cabinet has directed all E-commerce enterprises in the country to be registered with the Commerce Ministry within two months of starting operations.
Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said it in a briefing to media after the weekly cabinet meeting held in the secretariat in the capital on Thursday. The cabinet secretary said that the instruction came from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the cabinet meeting.
The Prime Minister presided over the meeting virtually from her government resident Gonobhaban and the other members of the cabinet participated in the meeting from the secretariat.
As per the cabinet meeting, he said, online shopping platforms will have to keep a security deposit with the Bangladesh Bank to start business.
“These deposits have to be mandatory so that dispute about money would be met by those money,” the cabinet secretary said.
In a bid to tackle fraudulence, intelligence agencies will monitor the business activities of online market places, as per the meeting decision.
“Bangladesh financial intelligent unit (BFIU), Digital monitoring platform and other intelligence agencies would keep all time surveillance on online marketplaces to check irregularities,” Khandker Anwarul Islam said.
Sources said, about Tk210 crore is trapped with payment gateways of consumers, merchants, and online shops because of the condition introduced by the government to regulate e-commerce platforms.
Cabinet secretary said, if anyone be cheated while doing business with any unregistered online platforms, the government would not take their responsibilities.
The cabinet has decided to create public consciousness widely about activities of e-commerce platforms, he said.
