PhonePe onboards all Indian electricity boards to enable seamless bill payments

Flipkart-owned PhonePe on Monday said it had onboarded all the 73 electricity boards (both public and private sector) across the country. This enables over 250+ million PhonePe users to pay their electricity bills on the app seamlessly. 

"We have seen massive growth in the adoption of digital payments for electricity bills since we launched the category in 2016. In fact, there has been an over 40 percent increase in the volume of electricity bill payments in October 2020 over the corresponding period last year," Ankit Gaur, Director of Business Development at PhonePe, said.

He added that more than 80 percent of its customers are in Tier II cities and beyond, indicating the widespread adoption of contactless bill payments.

PhonePe has launched many features to drive growth in the bill payments category, including Reminders and AutoPay options.

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Customers can make bill payments on the app based on a notification from PhonePe reminding them to pay. With AutoPay, customers need not worry about the due dates of their multiple utility bills or incurring late payment charges. The due amount gets automatically debited from the customer’s chosen payment method every month. 

PhonePe forayed into financial services in 2017 with the launch of digital gold, providing users with a safe and convenient option to buy 24-karat gold securely on its platform.

PhonePe has since launched mutual funds and insurance financial products like tax-saving funds, liquid funds, international travel insurance, and Corona Care, a dedicated insurance product for the COVID-19 pandemic.

PhonePe also launched its Switch platform in 2018, and today its customers can place orders on over 260 apps, including Ola, Myntra, IRCTC, Goibibo, RedBus, Oyo etc. directly from within the PhonePe mobile app. PhonePe is accepted at 13 million merchant outlets across 500 cities nationally.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)