Bharat BillPay soars in popularity; crosses over 3 crore mark by March 2018

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operated bill payment ecosystem Bharat BillPay has gained in popularity with each passing month. The payment feature which was launched in October 2017, has over 3.15 crore transactions in its name at the end of March 2018, against 1.8 crore earlier. Bharat BillPay is a RBI conceptualized ecosystem, managed by NPCI which offers integrated, accessible and inter-operable bill payment services to consumers with certainty, reliability and safety of transactions.

A.R. Ramesh, Chief Project Officer, Bharat Bill Payment System said, “The primary reason behind growing acceptance of Bharat BillPay among consumers is the ease of making instant and safe bill payments to any biller of any state, city or region from anywhere in India. The consumer has the option of using Bharat BillPay enabled internet banking, mobile banking or Bharat BillPay enabled website/app/agent assisted collection points."

Ramesh added, "By just seeing the BHARAT BILLPAY logo, consumer can access the touch points and pay their bills in one go. Instead of using multiple apps or logging in to different websites or even travelling to various collection points, the brand empowers and promises a one stop destination for payment of all utility bills. Consumers save cost and time instead of travelling to different places or visiting various websites.”

Consumers can currently pay for the following in the BHARAT BILLPAY:

• Electricity
•  Water
• Direct-To-Home (DTH)
• Telecom (Mobile-Postpaid, landline-Postpaid and Broadband)
• Gas pipe-line bills

There are multiple channels available to a consumer for paying bills which includes Internet banking, Website, Mobile banking/mobile app, or physical collection  points like Kirana shops/agents/BCs and bank-branches. 

Besides that, there are multiple payment options namely, Debit card, Internet banking, Mobile banking wallets, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Cash etc. Once bills are paid, the consumer receives instant confirmation in the form of SMS / email or printed receipt.

The objective has been to rapidly enhance the biller base to enable easier bill payment for consumers under one single ecosystem (Bharat Bill Payment System).

A biller is a service provider/utility company who receives payment for the service rendered.

Currently, the ecosystem has enabled 75 billers (Electricity: 49; DTH:3; Mobile Postpaid: 4; Landline Postpaid: 2; Broadband: 3; Gas: 10; Water; 4) who are spread across 20 states and 3 Union Territories in India, of which 13 billers are available across India.

As of date 1.7 million agents have been on-boarded.