HC annoyed over non-submission of e-commerce money laundering report

The High Court (HC) on Tuesday expressed annoyance over the non-submission of reports on money laundering by rogue e-commerce companies and revenue collection policies for them.

The HC asked the deputy attorney general to take immediate action after talking to the attorney general.

"Why would they [Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit and National Board of Revenue] not respond even after the notice? We will take the matter seriously," the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Mustafizur Rahman said.

Addressing Deputy Attorney General Bepul Bagmar, the court said, "You talk to the attorney general and inform him of the matter. We will not tolerate this at all."

On 28 September, the HC asked Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit and National Board of Revenue to submit a report on how much money the rogue e-commerce firms such as Evali and E-orange had received from the customers and where and how the funds were transferred.

The court also sought the report to mention whether there was any incident of money laundering in those fund transfers by the companies. Besides, the HC wanted to know what steps the revenue board had taken to collect revenue against the business transactions of the e-commerce companies.

The court also asked the commerce ministry to inform the jurisdiction of the 16-member technical committee for the country's e-commerce sector.

The authorities were directed to submit the reports by 8 November. The court sets 23 November as the next day for the submission of the reports.

On behalf of the disgruntled e-commerce customers, Barrister Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab and Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir filed a writ with the HC seeking its interventions.  

Commerce secretary, finance secretary, posts and telecommunications secretary, law secretary, central bank governor and revenue board chairman are among the 18 respondents of the writ.