Commerce Ministry forms committee, e-comm draft law to be formulated in 2 months

To maintain consumer trust in the e-commerce sector, the Commerce Ministry has formed a committee of 16 members to formulate draft laws for the sector.

The new committee will have four terms of reference and can draft any official from other ministries that they deem necessary.

The Ministry of Commerce issued a circular in this regard on Monday.

According to the circular, an additional secretary of the ministry will lead the committee that selected the new candidates of the new committee.

AHM Safiquzzaman, additional secretary of Import and Internal Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, has been made the convener of the committee and Muhammad Saeed Ali, the deputy secretary of Central Digital Commerce Cell, has been made the member secretary.

Other members of the committee are, representatives of the Information and Technology Department, representatives of Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Department of the Ministry of Law, representatives of Posts and Telecommunications Department, representatives of Bangladesh Bank, representatives of National Consumer Rights Protection Department, Bangladesh Competition Commission, Buet and Dhaka University teachers, representatives of the WTO Cell of the Ministry of Commerce, representatives of the FBCCI, representatives of the A2I, President and General Secretary of the E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh, President of BASIS, and Barrister Tanjibul Alam, a lawyer of the Supreme Court.

Additionally, the committee has to provide counsel within the next 15 days to address the problems in the digital commerce sector and the next two months to develop a structure and procedures for establishing a strong regulatory framework.

Recently, a number of rogue e-commerce platforms came to the limelight after deceiving thousands of clients and swindling more than Tk1,000 crore.

According to an official order of the Ministry of Commerce, a meeting was held on September 22 to review the current state of e-commerce in the country that has been plagued by scams. 

Following the meeting, the government decided to enact separate laws and set up separate authorities to maintain consumer trust in the e-commerce sector.