The Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Ltd (TGSPDCL) has decided to issue the monthly energy bills to its consumers with a QR code to ensure hassle-free payment without the need for entering the Unique Service Connection (USC) number in the utility’s website/app following the discontinuation of direct payment through third-party apps (UPIs)/banks.
According to the officials of the Southern Discom, the implementation of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines has denied consumers the payment of their monthly energy bills through third-party apps/banks/UPIs such as BillDesk, Paytm, T-Wallet, TG/AP Online/MeeSeva, GooglePay, PhonePe and others from this month (July 1) and the consumers can pay their bills only through the utility’s website/app in addition to the bill collection centres/counters.
The QR code bills, on scanning, would directly take the consumers to the payment section of the utility’s website/app where they could make the payment without entering the USC number.
The only change consumers have now is that they are required to enter the Discom’s website/app to make the payment of bills, which in turn has the facility to use the UPIs/Banks for payments as it redirects the consumers to the third-party apps to make the payment, the officials explained.
Despite the change in the easy bill payment facility, there has been no impact on revenue collection so far as about 1.2 lakh consumers have paid their bills through the available payment system. Issuance of bills has commenced from July and it is still in progress. The Discom has a total of about 1.2 crore consumers. Keeping aside the agricultural pump-set connections, for which no bills are issued as power supply is free to the category, the consumers stand around one-crore.
