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The Ministry of Commerce has taken initiatives for the release of Tk 397 crore Qcoom fund stuck in its payment gateway – Foster.
To this end, the ministry held a meeting with the representatives of e-commerce platform Qcoom, its gateway operator Foster, CID, SB, Bangladesh Bank, Financial Intelligence Unit and the Ministry of Law on Tuesday.
The commerce ministry has asked for an actual amount of transaction made between Qcoom and Foster. The released fund will be used to give back money to customers and for the delivery of products.
Sources said Qcoom owes its customers Tk 250 crore while it has Tk 397-crore stuck in Foster’s payment gateway.
The e-commerce platform said if the fund is released, it will be able to deliver products to the customers.
According to the commerce ministry, before June 22 Qcoom took Tk 500 crore from Foster and it has had a total transaction to the tune of Tk 897 crore through the payment service provider.
“All these issues were discussed in the meeting. We had set deadline till January 10 for Foster and Qcoom to give us the transaction details,” said AHM Safiquzzaman, additional secretary to the Ministry of Commerce.
Asked how much the customer would get from Qcoom, he said, “We have not asked the e-trader about the customers’ dues. We called them in the meeting to find a way out for the release of fund held by Foster.”
“We are also working on the Tk 214-crore fund stuck in the Escrow. We have received many complaints about Foster. That is why we sat today with both parties.”
Asked if Foster had admitted to release the fund, Safiquzzaman said, “Yes, they did.”
Foster paid Qcoom till June 22, and asked about the non-payment to Qcoom from June 22 to June 30, when the Escrow service was launched, Foster’s Senior Manager Al Biruni said they heard that a set of new rules are going to be in place on June 30; so they stopped paying.
Qcoom mainly deals in bikes with eye-catching advertisements and giving offers like Victory Hour, Independence Hour and Big Billion under which they claim to make sale at a lower price.
Customers used to place order after receiving an offer that suggests that a motorcycle worth Tk 1,67,000 could be purchased at Tk 1,20,000. But the buyers did not get the product on time from Qcoom.
On September 9, the Bangladesh Bank closed all bank accounts of Foster.
The central bank took the decision at the request of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on the basis of money laundering allegations.
Qcoom announced a temporary closure of its office on September 22. On October 3, its Chief Executive Officer Ripon Mia was arrested.
The e-commerce platform is one of the 10 e-commerce platforms whose bank transactions were suspended in last June on various charges, including selling products at unusual discounts.
