Home ›› 26 Sep 2021 ›› Front
Experts have suggested amending the existing law instead of enacting new law to oversee the burgeoning, but scam-hit e-commerce platforms. The suggestion comes as they believe the enactment of the new law might discourage the entry of new e-commerce entrepreneurs.
The economists, legal experts, and industry people came up with the observations at a virtual event organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Saturday, three days after the government planned the formation of a regulatory body and the enactment of a new law to govern the e-commerce sector.
The experts also called for effective coordination among the relevant regulatory bodies and active role from associations as well as rational behaviour from the consumers to bring discipline in the sector.
“Starting a new business is already difficult, additional regulations will discourage new businesses. The existing framework for the e-commerce sector is sufficient and a new regulatory body is not required,” said chaldal.com Founder and Chief Executive Officer Waseem Alim.
“From the very beginning, there was distrust in e-commerce business but we have been able to gain in last five years. Still, we are doing business with 70 per cent cash on delivery. As a result, there is a little problem,” he said.
“I think, if the monitoring and coordination among the government regulatory bodies are strengthened, it would be more effective in governing the sector and to stop foul play,” he said.
“The existing law and regulations are sufficient to overcome the challenges in the e-commerce sector but it will not be effective without proper implementation,’’ said Barrister Tanjib-ul Alam. Therefore, the capacity building of monitoring institutions should be improved, he said.
“Keeping the consumers’ money on hold for 6 to 11 months is not good for an e-commerce company. It is one kind of banking,” said bdjobs.com CEO AKM Fahim Mashroor.
Institutions responsible for ensuring consumer rights need to enforce the regulations strictly, while monitoring by the regulatory bodies like BB and relevant ministries is a must, he added
“The recent fraudulent e-commerce businesses seem to have turned into investment schemes for some people and this should have been intervened earlier,” said BRACK Bank Managing Director and CEO Selim RF Hussain.
He observed that there is a lack of coordination among the relevant stakeholders of the e-commerce sector.
e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) General Secretary Muhammad Abdul Wahed Tomal said the recommendations were already given on risky models of many e-commerce businesses but no actions were taken due to lack of coordination among the monitoring institutions.
Giving the example of e-commerce businesses in other countries like USA, Asix BD Managing Partner Afsana Asif stated that there are no tracking mechanisms of product delivery in Bangladesh. “Goods are not delivered in time and quality of products is not monitored,” he said.
“Such scams arise due to lack of governance in the sector. There was a lack of good governance. As a result, fraudulent e-commerce entrepreneurs embezzled customer’s money,” said CPD Chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan.
“The e-commerce has a huge potential for job creation and economic growth. The sector has flourished due to increased internet connectivity and the demand of the consumers. However, the sector is new and should be guided by appropriate policies, said CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun.
The experts also made some other recommendations, including enhancing the institutional capacity of the relevant organisations and departments such as the Ministry of Commerce, Bangladesh Bank, Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection, Financial Intelligence Unit, and Competition Commission, collecting regular data on the e-commerce and sharing those with relevant bodies and also with the public regularly to increase accountability of these businesses and making customers aware of the activities of e-commerce businesses.
