Bandar Seri Begawan - A New government utility bill payment has been introduced allowing existing water and electricity customers to pay their bills through participating banks effective yesterday following the signing of agreements between the government and respective banking institutions.

In addition to the existing Department of Electrical Services (DES) and Public Works Department (PWD) counter services, customers can now pay their bills through online banking, automated teller machines (ATMs), cash deposit machines, cheque deposit machines and phone banking.

The participating banks are Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD), Baiduri Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB).

"These newly introduced services also offer a more convenient 24/7 payment service which we hope will encourage customers to pay their bills promptly and thus help to improve the government revenue collection," said Dyg Hjh Suriyah Hj Umar, accountant general at the Treasury Department.

She further expressed hope that the banks will continue to work closer with the ministry in order to achieve the ministry's longer term objective. "What we are witnessing today is the first step of our short-term plan moving towards a longer term objective of a more integrated e-payment system with a common payment gateway to be used by all government agencies."

The current arrangement will initially focus on the payment of electricity and water bills and will be expanded to include other revenue collections in the foreseeable future. "InsyaAllah, with the success of this initial implementation, we will continue to extend the services to include other government department's revenue collection," she said.

The Utility Bill Payment via Banks initiated by the Treasury Department is in line with the Ministry of Finance's Strategic Plan aimed at improving the government revenue collection and is an integral part of the e-payment initiative, said Dyg Hjh Suriyah.

She added that the initiative also demonstrates the continuing efforts of the government in providing better quality and convenient delivery of services to the public using information technology (IT) so-called enabled interactivity and connectivity. Furthermore, the initiative also aligns with the goals of the e-Government

Strategic Plan 2009-2014 and helps to foster closer cooperation with the private sector.

Guest of honour Hj Bahrin Abdullah, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, attended the event at the ministry's premises at the Commonwealth Drive. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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