Odisha mulls onboarding water billers on BBPS to promote digital payments

National Payments Corporation of India has delivered a unified platform called BBPS, which aggregates multiple billers onto a single platform

The Odisha government is contemplating a proposal for the onboarding of all water billers on the Centre's Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). 

The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), tasked with the promotion of digital payments, has been coordinating with different stakeholders to facilitate e-payments across the country. Since water billers have an enormous consumer base, the wider adoption of digital payments is expected to help build confidence and inculcate behavioural changes amongst consumers. For water billers, digital payments promise to cut cash handling charges and help in timely reconciliation.

“We have already initiated e-payments of water bills under the e-Municipality project. Onboarding of water billers on BBPS will further this initiative," a government official said.

Data obtained from digital payments could provide accurate demand assessment which will help in planning the infrastructure and water supplies, leading to operational efficiencies and better services. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has delivered a unified platform called BBPS, which aggregates multiple billers onto a single platform. BBPS provides an inter-operable and easily accessible bill payment service to consumers. According to MeitY, the onboarding of all water billers on the BBPS platform would be a major enabler of digital payments by providing an easy interface to citizens for digital payments of bills.

BBPS provides an easy method for the adoption of digital payments by water billers. One single step of onboarding on BBPS makes a water biller discoverable and accessible on the websites and mobile apps of all BBPS partners, including all major banks and wallet operators. This enables consumers to pay water bills easily from their preferred banks and wallets. 

BBPS onboarding is also cost-effective for water billers. This enables the water billers to make their collection through authorized entities and can eliminate their own physical collection points that entail a huge set-up and maintenance cost.