Ministry seeks clients’ list from Qcoom

The commerce ministry yesterday sought the full list of the customers and merchants from Qcoom.com as it looks to refund the victims of e-commerce fraudulent activities from the money stuck up with Foster Payments.

"Qcoom will have to submit the list by 10 January to facilitate the disbursement of the funds," said AHM Shafiquzzaman, chief of the Digital Commerce Cell of the ministry, after a meeting with Qcoom executives at the secretariat.

A total of Tk 394 crore has been stuck up in the payment gateway since July this year after the central bank made it mandatory to use payment gateways for the completion of payments of e-commerce companies.

"Qcoom will also have to submit the payment details by the stipulated time," said Shafiquzzaman, also the additional secretary of the commerce ministry.

Of the total Tk 394 crore, Qcoom owes Tk 166 crore to the affected customers and merchants after the e-commerce company failed to deliver goods on time against advanced payments, said a senior official of the ministry after the meeting.

The amount has not been finalised yet. More calculations are needed to fix the exact amount to be paid to clients, he said.

However, Abul Kalam Azad, a lawyer of Qcoom, says the e-commerce platform owes Tk 250 crore to the affected customers and merchants.

Qcoom has been waiting to pay back the money as the company could not deliver the goods on time. But Foster Payments Corporation has been delaying the release of the fund, he said.

"We are hopeful that we can submit the list on time," Azad said, adding that Qcoom has adequate funds to refund the clients.

For instance, Tk 394 crore has been stuck up with the payment gateway but the amount of liability of the company to customers and merchants has been Tk 250 crore since July this year.

"We have sent letters to Foster Payments several times for the disbursement of the money. However, for some unknown reasons, Foster Payments is not paying back the money to the customers although we issued cheques in favour of them," Azad said.

"However, we came to know that the account of Foster Payments has been frozen upon recommendations from the Criminal Investigation Department and the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit in October."

The accounts were frozen due to its alleged involvement in money laundering.

As per directives received on August 10, 2021 from the investigating authorities, Foster Payments has been directed to stop all payment settlement on a temporary basis related to Qcoom Limited, said Backpage PR, the official public relations agency of Foster Payments, in a message on WhatsApp.