Merchants give Dhamaka Shopping 5 days to explain plan to clear Tk200cr dues 

• Over 1 lakh deliveries, worth over Tk100cr, are stuck with Dhamaka Shopping
• Affected merchants include Flora Ltd, Jamuna Group, Walton, D Shop, Jack N Gadget, Ryan Motors, Creative Bangladesh and 24-Bazaar
• On 9 September CID sued Dhamaka owners over allegations of laundering around Tk117cr

An association of merchants who supply products to e-commerce platform Dhamaka Shopping on Saturday warned of legal action against the company if it fails to present a concrete plan to clear the Tk200 crore dues owed to 650 merchants within the next five days.

The association named "Dhamakashopping.com (Invariant Telecom Bangladesh Ltd) Seller Association" gave the ultimatum at a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity.

The aggrieved merchants include Flora Ltd, Jamuna Group, Walton, D Shop, Jack N Gadget, Ryan Motors, Creative Bangladesh and 24-Bazaar.

Jahangir Alam, president of the sellers' association, said, "In spite of repeated exchanges with the management to recover our dues, we neither got to meet any of the owners nor found a solution to this."

The company's managing director, Jasim Uddin Chishti, on several occasions made promises to clear the dues but failed to keep them, he said, adding that legal action will be taken if a solution is not found within the deadline.

He also informed the media that more than one lakh deliveries, worth over Tk100 crore, are stuck with Dhamaka Shopping.

The aggrieved merchants also made an appeal to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take a decision regarding the matter.

"Since December last year, hundreds of merchants had been supplying products to the e-commerce company after it had agreed to pay them within 10 working days of receiving the copy of the delivery order," the association's Media Coordinator Zahidul Islam said, adding, "We are yet to get our dues even after 160 days.

Earlier, on Friday, the suppliers working with the e-commerce platform sought assistance from government authorities to recoup pending payments of Tk200 crore.

Prior to that, on Tuesday, they sent a letter to Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi in this regard.

Dhamaka's suppliers urged the minister to take necessary measures to ensure their outstanding payments are disbursed forthwith on humanitarian grounds, taking into consideration their plight of SME traders.

On 9 September this year, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police sued the owners of Dhamaka Shopping over allegations of laundering around Tk117 crore.

The CID sued Dhamaka Shopping Managing Director SMD Jasim Uddin Chisti, his wife, their children, a director of the company, and four other organisations.

Earlier, on 27 July, the Bangladesh Bank ordered the freezing of 14 personal bank accounts of Dhamaka high-ups, including the personal bank accounts of its managing director, Jasim Uddin Chishti, on the grounds of information about money laundering by the e-commerce company.

Dhamaka started business in November last year, but the firm is yet to open a business bank account of its own and has instead been collecting money from buyers through private and personal bank accounts.

Dhamaka has reportedly collected a hefty sum of money in advance payments from customers by alluring them with offers ranging from 40-50% discounts on various products, including cars and motorcycles.

The company also offered 35% discounts on cars of various reputed brands, including Mercedes-Benz.