Now you can pay electricity bill by phone

[LahoreEstate]

Friday, February 20, 2009
By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE

THE Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO) will introduce a new service offering payment of bills through phone.

The News has learnt any customer can avail this service free of cost but an account in a commercial bank or a debit/credit card is needed to use this service. Currently a company was working on implementation of the project and it would take three more months to launch the new service.

Customers will receive an SMS from the LESCO software system once the bill is generated. The SMS will contain data of units consumed, billing amount, month and a phone number. After getting the SMS, customers can call on the given number, tell the bill reference number, credit or debit card number or account number and the billed amount would be deducted from the customer’s account.

Akram Arain told The News that the project was likely to be launched within three months. He said currently the software development firm was linking the system to the State Bank of Pakistan and other commercial banks. Once linkages were established, the service would be launched after testing, he added.

He said currently around 30 million people were LESCO customers and the company was expecting that at least 50 per cent customers would use this service.

The new service would not only improve the recovery of the LESCO but also better serve customers and save them from the hassle of standing in long queues for payment of bills. Arain said the LESCO would bear the cost of this new service that would be offered to customers free of charge.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=163503