Telangana electricity bills cannot be paid directly on UPI apps, online through TG discom websites only: TGSPDL clarifies

In a move that is likely to cause inconvenience in payment of monthly energy bills, the power utilities in Telangana – TGSPDCL and TGNPDCL – has asked all their consumers to make the payments through their official website or mobile app since payment through all payment gateways and banks has been stopped from Monday, July 1.

End to use of payment gateways such as PhonePe, Paytm, AmazonPay, GooglePay to pay electricity bills

According to authorities of TGSPDCL, the decision has been taken as per the directions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It will put an end to use of payment gateways such as PhonePe, Paytm, AmazonPay, GooglePay and through several banks. When contacted, officials stated that a sizeable chunk of consumers in the urban areas had been using such payment gateways to pay their monthly energy bills all these years.

The officials said the directions were issued to power utilities across the country. In response to a social media post by the distribution utility (TGSPDCL), several consumers termed it a “harsh step”. Some consumers pointed out that there was no app for iPhone users as it was not available. Some suggested making the bill payments BBPS compliant and some others remarked that the move was a step backwards from digital India.

Meanwhile, Chairman and Managing Director of TGSPDCL Md. Musharraf Faruqui told The Hindu that the new system of monthly energy bill payments was only aimed at avoiding payment through third-party unified payment interfaces. Explaining it, he stated that so far the consumers were able to pay bills directly through the UPIs but now it was not possible. They could make payment using those UPIs only through the bill payment interface through the utility’s website or app.

He also clarified that they have the TGSPDCL app available in iStore (iPhone) too and consumers could make payment through it.