Refunding Evaly customers begins today

The commerce ministry is set to begin refunding customers of beleaguered e-commerce platform Evaly from today.

The ministry will return some Tk 1.36 crore stuck in Nagad and SSLCOMMERZ payment gateways to 4,141 Evaly customers, according to officials.

Besides, ministry officials are scheduled to hold a tripartite meeting with representatives of Evaly and various payment gateway organisations on the day to resolve any complications regarding the refunding.

“The refunding of Evaly customers is beginning after trying for the past few months. The money stuck at payment gateways will be refunded first. The gateways have been instructed in this regard,” said Commerce Ministry Additional Secretary Md Hafizur Rahman.

“Besides, further steps will be taken as per the instructions of the High Court regarding the remaining amount,” added Hafiz, who is also the director general of the Central Digital Commerce Cell of the ministry.

He informed that initially, the money which got stuck at Nagad and SSL payment gateways in the last three days – September 14 to 16, 2021– before Evaly was temporarily closed down, will be refunded to Evaly customers.

According to officials, the ministry has directed authorities concerned to refund Tk 1.35 crore to 4,127 Evaly customers through Nagad and Tk 1.42 lakh to 14 customers through SSL on Thursday.

In the meantime, Hafiz continued that some complications have arisen regarding the refunding of the money that Evaly customers paid through mobile financial service agents. In order to resolve the situation, authorities have requested customers’ personal MFS account numbers from Evaly. “The money will be returned to the customers after their account numbers are provided by Evaly.”

Also, he said a meeting will be held with all the payment gateways on Thursday to discuss and resolve the complications in the refund process, following which, the process of refunding all the withheld money will begin.

According to Central Digital Commerce Cell sources, Evaly has Tk 26 crore stuck in different payment gateways. Another scam-hit e-commerce platform eOrange has Tk 34 crore.

Evaly’s downfall

According to the central bank, Evaly had Tk 404 crore dues as of the mid-March 2021, including Tk 214 crore liabilities to customers.

Launched in 2018, the e-commerce platform, before its downfall amid a flurry of scandals, saw massive growth and attracted huge numbers of customers with discount offers. But in recent years, failure to deliver products and allegations of money embezzlement and fraud brought it down to its heels.

On 15 September last year, an Evaly customer filed the embezzlement case against the platform’s Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Rasel, and Chairperson Shamima Nasrin -- both of whom were arrested. The company also saw a temporary shutdown. On October 18, 2021, the High Court formed a four-member new board, to manage, control, and assess the liabilities of the e-commerce platform. On April 6 last, Shamima was released on bail but her husband Rassel is still behind bars.

Following a petition filed by an Evaly customer, the HC on 22 September last year put a moratorium on the sale or transfer of all movable and immovable assets of Evaly.