HUBBALLI, February 26: Tired of waiting in long queues to pay your electricity bills? Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited (Hescom) has introduced the option of online bill payment in its portal to ease the customers by logging on to www.hescom.co.
To avail the online service, one needs to register consumer ID with the portal. Registrations can be done as owner or lessee. Once registered, consumers can review their previous bills and consumption history on the portal. Registered consumers will also receive email alerts on change in tariff and load. Non-registered consumers can also pay their bills online by opting as a guest user. Payments can be made via credit card, debit card and internet banking. Consumer rights activist Chamaraj Bangi welcomes the service as it is beneficial for Dharwad which a large number of elderly and retired people whose children work in other cities or countries.
Kasturi Hangal, 59, whose children work in Bengaluru, used to stand in the queue to pay the electricity bill. She is now saved of the trouble as children pay the bill online.
Jagadish Kukanur, who has been a registered user of the portal for the past 20 days, says that the user attached to a particular meter can also be changed. “If any person shifts his rented house, he can change the account ID using his account,” he says.
However, Ganapati Kakade, a bank employee, complains that the portal is not connected to internet banking services of nationalized banks like State Bank of India. “Though I brought this to the notice of Hescom, it has neither responded nor corrected the mechanism,” he says.
While appreciating the Hescom initiative, Bangi also raises certain problems in the portal. “If we click on ‘streetlight problem’, the portal says that it doesn’t have email ID of local administration and insists us to contact the municipal office,” Bangi complains.
Hescom general manager SR Kulkarni explains that the portal was launched in the second week of January under the title of “Web Self Service” (WSS). “Currently WSS is available for customers of 31 towns, that are selected for ‘Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme’ of the Union government. It may be extended to all towns and villages in the coming years,” he assures.
