State discoms give lukewarm response to Centre's digital transaction call

A lukewarm response by state distribution companies (discoms) to the Centre’s call for digital transactions has ostensibly prompted the government to settle for a lesser volume of transactions in the power sector this financial year.

For 2017-18, the Union power ministry was assigned a target of 1.01 billion transactions. But the ministry was barely able to achieve approximately 240 million transactions across all digital modes. The purview of transactions covered the discoms in states and Union territories and transactions done in the ministry as well as organisations and public sector undertakings (PSUs) controlled by it.

The below-par achievement in last fiscal has led to the Centre allocating a lower target of 950 million transactions for the Power Ministry this fiscal. “Digital transactions did not happen in a big scale in the power sector due to lack of adequate publicity campaigns and little awareness on central government platforms like BHIM app and the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). Also, the state discoms were not prepared to make that ready shift to e-payments," explained an industry source.

A bulk of the digital transactions in the power sector is to be made up by online electricity bill payments. The power ministry, realising this, has underscored the need for state discoms to actively promote and facilitate e-payments. For that to happen, consumers should be assured of convenient and hassle-free transaction facilities. The ministry has suggested that states could explore offering incentives like cash back and discounts for consumers and waive off convenience fees charged to them for online payments. Over and above electricity bill payments, states could tap other areas such as payments made to contractors and vendors.  

In addition to promotion of digital transactions on the BHIM app, states can consider on-boarding of all electricity billers on BBPS developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Offices of the state power department and discoms should be equipped with digital payment facilities to accept payments by debit or credit cards through PoS (Point of Sale) devices. States are required to provide updated details of digital transactions by the 5th of every month.