BESCOM &BWSSB register increase in online bill payments

Almost 13 lakh consumers paid their electricity bills online in September marking a 48 times jump in the last six months, reveals data procured from Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM).

“The number of customers paying their bills online was 26,947 during March 2018 and it has now reached 12,97,000 by the end of September 2018. This is a huge feat for us, as we had not communicated about the facility publicly to our customers. It is indeed customer satisfaction that has helped us to gain more trust and has taken us this far,” said Suresh Prabhu, General Manager, BESCOM.

Even Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has seen a four times increase in the number of online bill payments. VB Maheshwarappa, executive engineer, IT department, BWSSB said, “The number of customers paying their bills online has increased from 1,000 in September to 5,000 within a month. We have 9.35 consumers in the city. Paying bills is one of the main pain points as the customers have to visit the office and make payment. The new system provides an easy solution.”

BWSSB and BESCOM have tied up with Bharat Bill Payment System, an online integrated service that allows consumers to pay various government agencies through platforms like Amazon Pay, Freecharge, Tez and others. While BESCOM introduced it in March this year, BWSSB began it only in September 2018.

A R Ramesh, chief project officer, Bharat Bill Payment System said that they are also planning to have other agencies such as Gas services, on board so that people can have access to all verticals through one medium.