TANGEDCO plans to migrate 50% lT consumers to other payment modes

TANGEDCO plans to migrate 50% lT consumers to other payment modes

Chennai, April 30 (IANS) Power utility company Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation ltd (TANGEDCO) is aiming to migrate 50 per cent of its low Tension (lT) consumers to other modes of bill payment and in the process rationalise the number of collection centres, said a senior official on Monday.

M. Manoharan, Director Finance, told reporters here that 28 per cent of the lT consumers are making payment through modes like net banking, mobile payment and others.

"Our target is to take this to 50 per cent. Due to availability of other payment modes apart from payment at our collection centres, the bill payment default has come down," Manoharan said.

Earlier, the payment default used to be around five per cent -- consumers not able to make the payment at TANGEDCO cash counters. Now it has come down to two per cent, Manoharan said.

According to him, TANGEDCO has around 5,000 bill payment centres. With the increasing number of consumers paying their power bills by other modes, the company may rationalise the number of bill payment centres.

"In Chennai, we have merged bill payment centres and in some places reduced the number of counters."

Manoharan said the Central government is also encouraging the power utility to propagate other modes of bill payment.

He was speaking at the Bharat BillPay launch function here held by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The power utility has been onboarded for the Bharat BillPay ecosystem through Indian Overseas Bank enabling consumers for easy payment of their power bills.

According to A.R. Ramesh, Chief Project Officer, Bharat Bill Payment System at NPCI, the Tamil Nadu power utility is one of the unique billers joining the interoperable bill payment ecosystem for the first time.

Ramesh said the Bharat Bill Payment System is a Reserve Bank of India conceptualised ecosystem, managed by NPCI offering integrated, accessible and interoperable bill payment services to consumers across geographies.

As on date, 61 banks and 10 non-bank entities - prepaid instrument issuers, consumer facing organisations - function as Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units in the country.

--IANS

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