Long gone are the days when you had to stand in a queue to pay your bills. The hassles of travelling to the electricity office and waiting for a long time, for a job that only takes a few minutes, is a needless waste of time. Paying bills online not only reduces company’s expenses on paper receipts and employees, but also saves precious time and energy for consumers. Online portals are very convenient and user-friendly, as they allow you to make payments for almost any bills, anywhere.
In the days following Demonetization, digital transactions and e-Payments have grown considerably in volume and frequency. The government has also encouraged the public to make use of these online payment portals in a move towards a cashless economy.
Electricity Bills are accepted as an address proof for various official and government purposes. For this reason, misplacing the physical bills can be troublesome. The e-Bills generated from making payments online can be saved on the smartphone/computer and retrieved easily for future reference. Moreover, by making electricity bill payments online, customers can avail many benefits such as discounts, cash back, coupons and vouchers.
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Before getting into how to pay electricity bills online, it is important to understand that all electricity bills are paid to the state’s department or corporate supplier and not to the central department. Therefore, there is no single way to pay the bills. Each State/City has their separate website. You will be required to provide a unique identifier like Account number/Service Number.
There are many ways to pay electricity bill online. We shall take a look at some of the most popular modes of payment.
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To find the official website for your State/City, you can do of the following:
You can register a new account or use the Quick Payment option.
Once you navigate to the payment page, you can use either Debit/Credit card or Net Banking option to pay.
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You can log onto the Net Banking site and pay your bills by using the “Pay Bills” option. Every bank has a different user interface and website structure. The common thing among all these websites is that you have to register the State/City’s Electricity Department as a biller from the available list before you can make the payment.
Using Net Banking for electricity bills can be advantageous, as bill payment can be automated. For this option, sufficient balance must be maintained before the due date, failing which a penalty will be levied. Most banks in India have this facility, while some may not have your required State/City’s Electricity Department on their list.
Third party payment portals such as Bill Desk and Visa Bill Pay, allow users to pay bills on their website. Registration on their site is compulsory before making payments. They make revenue by charging a commission from the service provider and hence it’s free for the user.
Mobile Wallets and Digital Payment platforms such as Paytm, and the Bhim App are revolutionizing the way transactions take place in the digital sphere. All you need is a smartphone and a data connection and anything can be done.
Once you are registered on a digital platform by furnishing the necessary details, you can make payments anywhere and at any time.
What makes this mode of payment appealing is the scope of usage for such applications. They are powerful tools that are capable of handling almost all financial transactions from a single platform.
Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an initiative by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and has given authority to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to set rules, procedures, technical and business requirements for all participants. It is a one-stop payment platform for payment of all bills. Currently the categories of billers available on Bharat Bill Payment Scheme are: Electricity, Telecom, DTH, Gas and Water. Other categories like Mutual Funds, Insurance, Institution Fees, Taxes, Invoices and so on will be added over time.
BBPS is the most secure and reliable method of payment as it is directly regulated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) by the authority of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
All the transactions made through online payment method are on record and can be traced for future reference. Online payments can be made at any time of the day and have no holidays, therefore there is no waiting time. For any online payment portal, if the payment fails but the amount gets debited from your account, the amount will be credited back to your account within 5 working days.
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