Aliya Abreu
PANAJI
Though the Power Ministry launched the Bharat Bill Pay Services (BBPS) with great gusto along with officials from the power department and TJSB Sahakari Bank on January 26 in a bid to encourage digital payments, citizens are still reluctant to use the BBPS online services to pay their electricity bills.
A few inquiries made by ‘The Goan’ both at the electricity department headquarters, and with the “aam aadmi” proved that the launch had not encouraged people to try their hand at online payments. Many citizens expressed confusion over what BBPS was. Even those who used to pay online prior to the launch of BBPS seemed to prefer the old payment gateway “UPay” which people have been using for quite some years to pay their electricity bills.
Speaking to ‘The Goan’, Nadia Aslam from St Inez expressed that both she and her mother had received electricity bills with huge amounts that were wrong in the past, and had to go to the Electricity Department to get the bills rectified anyway. “Despite paying regularly and on time, we still receive huge bills and need to get them rectified. There’s no question of paying online if we receive wrong bills,” said Nadia.
Another citizen Datta Pednekar said, “I tried paying online once, and my payment didn’t get updated. Since then, I don’t trust these online payments and we pay the bills at the nearest co-operative society.”
Anoushka Sequeira from Taleigao said that while they used to pay their electricity bills online, they once had a problem with the site, and since then go physically to pay the bill at the bank even though it’s a big hassle. When asked if she had tried BBPS online services like the BHIM app, Anoushka said she hadn’t heard of it.
Meanwhile, Deepak Chari, a city artist, told ‘The Goan’ that his family paid the bills at a co-operative society nearby, even though it was a hassle, and said he had not yet tried paying it online.
At the electricity department headquarters, officials have tried convincing people standing in queues to pay online but to no avail. A senior official told ‘The Goan’, “I saw a couple of
