BHUBANESWAR: Customers of Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar now have the option to pay their electricity bill at Airtel counters.
Announcing its partnership with Airtel Payments Bank here on Monday, CESU said the facility will now be available at 160 outlets of Airtel in the twin city. The facility will be made available in phases at more than 10,000 points of Airtel Payments Bank covering all 27 lakhs customers of CESU spread across nine districts of Odisha.
The service was formally launched at Airtel counter at Saheed Nagar on the day. The discom took the decision came after it received complaints about consumers having to wait in queues for long time to pay their electricity dues.
"There is a heavy rush of consumers at all the 56 bill collection counters in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack ever since CESU launched arrear collection-cum-disconnection drive from January 16. The partnership with Airtel will add another 160 counters providing more access to payment points," said CESU Senior GM SK Mishra.
After successful operations, the payment facility will be extended to 4,800 Airtel outlets in Cuttack, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri districts in the second phase. In last phase, remaining districts of Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Angul, Dhenkanal and part of Jajpur will be covered with 5,000 more Airtel outlets, Mishra added.
This initiative of CESU and Airtel will not only offer better facilities to customers for easier payment of electricity dues but extend additional benefits for making timely payment. Consumers will get a discount of 10 paise per unit if they pay their current dues within the rebate date and two pc rebate on billed amount if domestic consumers pay through digital mode.Low transmission (LT) consumers who will pay bills regularly for the entire year will get an additional 10 paise per unit discount in March.
Currently, CESU has e-payment options like web payment (integrated with Odisha Online/OCAC and HDFC), Bharat Bill Payment System and ECS direct debit. Payment option through NEFT/RTGS is also available. Around 90,000 consumers per month pay via electronic methods.
At present CESU has 14 computerised collection counters, mostly in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Airtel Payments Bank aims to take digital banking services to the doorstep of the people particularly in unbanked rural areas.
Arrear collection reaches Rs 25 crore
BHUBANESWAR: Collection of arrear bills by Central Electricity Supply Utility during the ongoing drive against defaulters has crossed Rs 25 crore. On the fifth day of the drive, the utility collected Rs 4.53 crore and disconnected power supply to 1,416 commercial consumers for their refusal to clear the dues.
Since beginning of the drive on January 16, power supply of 7,691 defaulters have been snapped. However, supply has been restored to 3,375 premises after payment of dues. The cumulative spot collection during the drive is Rs 23.06 crore and another Rs 1.96 crore has been received online, said SK Mishra of the utility.
Applications for bill revision has been received from 1,440 consumers while 5,428 consumers have requested for payments in instalment, he said. As many as 50,533 defaulting commercial consumers have been touched by the special squads of CESU in five days.