Govt not contemplating e-commerce law

A commerce ministry official has said the government is not contemplating to formulate a new law to administer online shopping business in the country as the country already has three laws.

Additional Secretary to commerce ministry AHM Safiqul Zaman on Tuesday said a sub-committee has been formed to investigate whether or not a law is necessary to govern online trading.

The committee has been given 30-day time to come to a conclusion, he said.

The opening meeting of the recently formed inter-ministerial committee on Digital E-commerce Act was held at the commerce ministry auditorium on Tuesday. The meeting was presided over by additional secretary to the commerce ministry and convener of the committee on formulation of Digital E-commerce Act, AHM Safiqul Zaman.

After the meeting Safiqul said there are three laws in the country-consumer right protection law, Digital Security Act and competition act which are enough to look after any digitally run commercial activities.

“Therefore no new law has to be formulated,” Safiqul said.

He said, ‘If we want to formulate a law, several ministries such as home, public administration, commerce and ICT need to be involved and it will be a time consuming exercise.”

He also said that it is not possible to formulate a Digital Commerce Authority within a short time.

“We also want to provide more power to the commerce ministry’s digital commerce cell,” Safiqul noted.

While responding to a reporter, he said the government does not want to allow further damage to the e-shoppers. The financial losses of the clients could not be appeased. “But, we do not want further damage,” he said.

Two months ago the Prime Minister Office directed authorities to intervene into deceiving businesses by some rogue e-commerce platforms and take steps to stop such fraudulent activities.