Economic Reporter :
A sellers’ association of Dhamaka Shopping warned of legal action if no solution to the Tk200 crore dues owed to 650 merchants of the e-commerce company is provided within the next five days.
Leaders of Dhamakashopping.com (Invariant Telecom Bangladesh Ltd) Seller Association, comprising of merchants who supplied goods to the company, gave the ultimatum at a press conference on Saturday at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.
Jahangir Alam, president of the association, said, “Despite repeated exchanges with the management to recover our dues, we neither got to meet any of the owners nor found a solution to this.
“The company’s Managing Director Jasim Uddin Chishti has repeatedly made promises but failed to keep them,” he said, adding that legal action will be taken if a solution is not found.
According to the president, more than one lakh deliveries, worth over Tk100 crore, are stuck with Dhamaka Shopping.
At the event, they made an appeal to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requesting her to take a decision regarding the matter.
“Since December last year, hundreds of merchants had been supplying products to the e-commerce company after it had agreed to pay them within 10 working days of receiving the copy of the delivery order,” the association’s media coordinator Zahidul Islam said, adding, “We are yet to get our dues even after 160 days.
Earlier yesterday, the suppliers of the e-commerce sought assistance from government authorities to recoup pending payments of Tk200 crore owed to them by Dhamaka.
Prior to that, they sent a letter to Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Tuesday in this regard.
Dhamaka’s suppliers urged the minister to take necessary measures to ensure their pending payments are disbursed forthwith on humanitarian grounds, taking into consideration their plight as SME traders.
On 9 September, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police sued the owners of Dhamaka Shopping for laundering around Tk117 crore.
The CID sued Dhamaka Shopping Managing Director SMD Jasim Uddin Chisti, his wife, their children, a director of the company, and four other organisations.
Earlier on 27 July, the Bangladesh Bank ordered the freezing of 14 personal bank accounts of Dhamaka officers, including the personal bank accounts of its managing director, Jasim Uddin Chishti, on the grounds of information about money laundering by the e-commerce company.
