Hubli Electricity Supply Company (Hescom) has announced that from March 18, 2023, all online electricity bills will be settled only through the BBPS (Bharat Bill Payment System) app. So customers now have to pay their bills only through Hescom website. This means that the convenience of UPI apps like GPay, Phone Pay, CRED, Paytm etc. is unfortunately no longer available. But if everything goes well in the next five-six days, the facility of paying bills through this app will be available again.
For the past two months, consumers have been asked to use the Hescom website to pay electricity bills online. This website is proving to be inconvenient for many churches paying bills using UPI payment apps. For this, there is a strong demand to re-introduce UPI based bill payment system.
According to Hescom sources, the online bill payment service has not been stopped, however, due to the tender failure, Bank of Baroda, a UPI payment service provider, has demanded three times the service rate from Hescom to continue its service. And Hescom cannot afford to pay three times more rate to the bank for UPI payment service. As a result Hescom is trying to tie up with other service providers.
But because of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) it is not possible. That is why the relaunch of UPI payment service has been delayed by almost two months. But now as soon as the work order is issued, the service will be provided by Airtel Bank. So, if everything goes well, in the next five-six days, electricity consumers will be able to pay their bills online as before.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has approved the electricity tariff hike in the state as soon as the assembly elections are over. Eskoms had initially requested a rate hike of 139 paisa per unit. But KERC has fixed this rate at 70 paise. This new electricity rate hike has been implemented across the state from May 1, 2023.
