Indian Bank unveils QR code bill payment system for CESC

By using the dynamic QR code linked to the unified payments interface (UPI) on printed electricity bill, customers will be able to make their payments without visiting any online portal or physically going to any payment centre.

Instant acknowledgement is issued and the QR code is disabled once the transaction is completed, the Chennai-headquartered bank said in a statement. Karnataka Minister of Energy V Sunil Kumar formally unveiled the QR code solution in the presence of senior government officials including CESC managing director Jayavibhava Swamy.

The CESC is in the process of introducing a new type of bill generation and payment system in coordination with Indian Bank besides a facility to make RTGS-NEFT payments for bulk consumers using virtual account number (VAN), said Swamy.

Indian Bank field general manager Sudhir Kumar Gupta emphasised the need for easy and secure digital payment systems to provide customers with hassle-free payment experience.

QR payments around the globe

Germany-based digital payments processing company epay recently partnered with China’s UnionPay to integrate the latter’s QR code payment service in Europe. The agreement between UnionPay International (UPI), and epay means that UnionPay’s QR code payments, also known as UnionPay App, can be settled in Europe for Chinese tourists and other UnionPay card users from all over the world.

UnionPay also partnered with the Korea Easy Payment Foundation and BC Card to enable UnionPay QR code payments for ZeroPay merchants.

Through this partnership UnionPay cardholders that visit the country will have the option of carrying out QR payments with their UnionPay app at merchants who accept ZeroPay, a local mobile payment service in South Korea. In the future, the offering is set to be extended to more e-wallets that support UnionPay cards’ enrolment.

The payments sector in Asia has seen strong and growing demand from consumers for QR code-based payments, a trend spreading to more countries around the world. When paying at a POS terminal under the consumer-presented mode, the user’s payment app generates a QR code which is scanned by the retailer to trigger payment, with the process completed in a few seconds.