Odisha: Website for payment of electricity bills by panchayats

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday launched a website and mobile app for online payment of monthly electricity bills by panchayats.

This initiative aims to simplify the process of paying electricity bills for Gram Panchayats across the state. It was jointly developed by the Energy Department, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water Department, NIC and Tata Power Ltd.

Deputy CM KV Singh Deo along with Rural Development Minister Rabi Narayan Naik inaugurated the website and the app, named GCMS (Government Consumer Management System).

The primary goal of this initiative is to ensure uninterrupted road lighting and drinking water supply in rural areas while promoting transparency and accountability. Historically, the state has faced challenges with delayed payments and a lack of efficient monitoring systems for electricity bills.

Annually, approximately Rs 250 crore is spent on electricity tariffs across all gram panchayats in the state. However, delayed payments and the lack of a streamlined monitoring system have led to arrears in electricity bills.

The GCMS portal, integrated with the e-Gram-Swaraj online platform, allows Panchayats to access, approve, and pay electricity bills within a day using a secure OTP system. This streamlined process is expected to significantly reduce arrears and improve overall efficiency in bill payments.

The application has already been successfully tested in three village panchayats of Bhubaneswar block in Khurda district, receiving positive feedback from stakeholders. Notably, Odisha is the first state in India to implement such a platform for electricity bill management at the Panchayat level.