Amid lockdown, online payment of power bills rises in Maharashtra

Sandip Dighe | TNN | Apr 9, 2020, 18:03 IST

Representative image.

PUNE: As many as 73.29 lakh people have paid their electricity bills totally worth Rs 1,227.25 crore though online mode across the state.
The Pune division topped with 13.50 lakh people utilising the online facility to make their payments.
Ever since the lockdown imposed by the central government, the billing counters of the Maharashtra state electricity distribution company (MSEDCL) have been closed. But the company has appealed to the customers to pay their bills through their website, mobile app, etc.
An MSEDCL release stated, "Because of the lockdown, the MSEDCL has stopped printing it's bills. But we have sent bills on the people's mobile. Besides, they can see or verify their bills on our website and mobile app."
A company official said, "This system has worked effectively mainly in urban areas as many people are comfortable with mobile apps and website. However, we did not get a similar response from rural areas."
"Our mobile app is avaliable in Marathi and English and we have observed many farmers too have started utilising it for paying the bills. On many occasions, farmers couldn't make the payment in time due to lack of money in the registered account on the app," the official added.