Committee to draft e-com law in the offing

The Ministry of Commerce has decided to form a technical committee comprising various ministries and agencies to take steps for drafting a new law and establish an authority to protect the e-commerce sector and restore order in it.

The decision was made at a special meeting on digital commerce at the ministry on Monday.

According to a senior official of the ministry, the committee will be led by AHM Shafiquzzaman, an additional secretary of the ministry.

Representatives from home, law, finance, information and broadcast, information and communication technology (ICT), and telecommunication ministries, the Bangladesh Bank, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection (DNCRP), Bangladesh Competition Commission, the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC), and 17 other agencies are being included in the technical committee, he told The Business Post.

A draft of the committee with the names of the members has already been submitted to the commerce minister for approval, the official said.

He said that the committee will begin working on a draft of the e-commerce law as soon as it is approved.

“Besides forming the draft law, the committee will work to figure out ways to combat the crises of the e-commerce sector. It will also provide recommendations for establishing an authority for this sector in future,” he further said.

Some 1,000 unregistered e-commerce companies are currently running operations in the country.

Among these, 11 companies, including Evaly, very recently siphoned off around Tk 3,317 crore from consumers and investors, which led to the urgent government decision of forming a new law and an authority for the sector.