Pay power bills at your doorstep, post offices

All-time payment centres closed; online, ECS, M-1, BN-1, K-1 to continue

After shutting down all its All Time Payment (ATP) counters with effect from February 1, the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) will start collecting electricity bills from consumers’ doorstep from February 9 in Bengaluru on a pilot basis. Now, consumers can also pay their power bills at post offices with effect from February 20.

Bescom Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Pandey told reporters on  Thursday that the ATPs had been closed down from February 1. The decision was taken because consumers were going through a lot of hardships like standing in long queues and coming to the ATPs.

Consumers can also continue to pay the bills through Electronic Clearing System (ECS), online payments, MobileOne (M-1), BangaloreOne (B-1), Karnataka One (K-1), Union Bank of India branches, post offices and through spot collection facility. 

“The post office services will start from February 20 and the system will be the same as at the B-1 and K-1 centres. Spot collection facility will start from February 9. Though this service already exists in rural areas coming under Bescom jurisdiction, it will soon be started in all urban areas. On a pilot basis, it is first being introduced in Bengaluru. Mobile payment centres will come to consumers’ doorsteps where one can collect bills and make payments,” he said. 

After the closure of ATPs, we expect more people to use ECS facility, as there is a 0.25 per cent rebate on consumers’ bills, he added. Pandey said that there was no official Bescom MobileApp in the market yet. There was only the ‘1912’ Public Grievance System App.

The company will soon introduce an exclusive App through which consumers can avail bills and information on outages and power cuts. 

Till February 1, Bescom had 135 ATPs across its circle, of which 120 were in Bengaluru, catering to 30 per cent of its consumers, collecting around Rs 160 crore through bill payments every month.

The ATPs were outsourced and Bescom was paying Rs 3.26 per transaction to the agents. Around 40 per cent of the bill collection is from B-1, K-1 and M-1, about three lakh consumers pay online and 75,000 through ECS. Bescom has 79 lakh live consumers and 15 lakh long-distance disconnected consumers. 

Illegal hoardings

Pandey said a report has been submitted to the Lokayukta, stating that power to 150 illegal hoardings in the City has been disconnected. Monthly meetings are being held with BBMP and a drive was also recently conducted, where it was found that most hoardings are not illuminated.

On people generating their own solar power and selling it to the grid, Pandey said they received 350 applications to generate 22 MW power, of which seven installations have been commissioned in two months. Letters to 60 applicants have been sent, approving their proposal to instal their own solar panels.