People in rural areas can pay utility bills at CSCs

Now people in rural India would be able to pay utility bills such as electricity, water and telephone at common service centres (CSC) through debit or credit cards as well in cash.

Minister of Telecom and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) licence to CSC e-Governance Services India, which manages around 199,000 CSCs across the country.

Bharat Bill Payment System is an integrated bill payment system that offers interoperable bill payment service to customers online as well as through a network of agents on the ground.

CSCs have been opened in villages for the delivery of various electronic services like online ticket booking, Aadhar enrolment among other things. "RBI has granted licence or in-principle approval for CSCs to function as BBPOU. Payments of various bills can be done through CSC, now like water bill, electricity bill," Prasad said on Wednesday.

He added that of the total 1.02 billion Aadhar enrollments as of June 2016, around 108 million enrollments have been done through CSCs. BBPOUs are authorised entities for facilitating payments online as well as through a network of agents on the ground.

The minister said these centres have been providing digital services in rural India and hence government has decided to rename them as Digital Service Kendra. Customers will also have the option to pay bills in prepaid payment instruments including wallets, and other electronic payment options such as net banking and IMPS.

"The facility can be further extended for collection of university fee, mutual funds, insurance premium. With this, CSCs will become a payment gateway," Prasad said.