Alesha Mart's 2,500 customers are getting their money back

After QCom, another e-commerce company Alesha Mart is giving back a total of Tk 42 crore to about two and a half thousand customers. The process will start today, Thursday with the formal transfer of money to 10 customers at the Secretariat. Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh will preside over the function. This money of Alesha Mart's customers was stuck for so long with the payment gateway (payment service provider) called SSL Commerce. This information has been known from the sources of the Ministry of Commerce.


Customers ordered to buy products from Alesha by paying cash and development. The money is deposited as SSL Commerce. These are the events after June 30, 2021. Since the e-commerce guidelines stated that Alesha Mart would not receive any money from that day until the delivery of the product, the money was stuck.


According to data from Alesha Mart, payment gateway company SSL Commerce and Bangladesh Bank, the Ministry of Commerce found that customers paid Tk 42 crore but did not enter Alesha Mart as a bank. Although Alesha Mart has 56 accounts in different banks. It is learned that till October last year, customers had deposited around Tk 2,12,8 lakh in those accounts of Alesha Mart. Of this, Alesha Mart has raised Rs 1,999 crore.


According to Commerce Ministry sources, customers had about Rs 300 crore stuck with Alesha Mart. The company has paid 12 crore. After paying Rs 42 crore, Alesha Mart will also return the remaining money. Chairman of the organization Manjur Alam Sikder has given such a promise to the Ministry of Commerce. Sikder is also expected to attend a meeting at the Commerce Ministry today.


On December 2, Alesha Mart applied to the Ministry of Commerce for a working capital grant of Tk 300 crore from the government. The application form assures that the company has 50,000 employees and about 1.3 million app users. In addition, the company receives eight lakh purchase orders every month.