Bescom portal glitch: No late payment penalty on March bills in urban areas

If you were not able to pay your electricity bill in March before the due date, worry not as the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has decided not to levy any late fee or disconnect power supply, only for this month.

The online services of all electricity supply companies (Escoms) in Karnataka were not available owing to upgradation of the IT system from March 10 to March 19. The services were expected to resume on March 20. However, many consumers struggled to pay their bills even on

March 20 and 21, owing to glitches in the online portal.

“I have always been regular with my bill payments, and I have been using the online portal for almost two years now. As the services were expected to resume before the due date, I did not pay at the Bescom office. But, on March 20, I tried throughout the day, but the server did not work. I could complete the payment by March 21 afternoon though,” said Ravi Nayak, a resident of Thindlu.

With March 20 being the due date for most consumers, there were also long queues outside Bescom offices. Even there, the payment was reportedly not going through for some consumers due to technical glitches.

“Throughout Karnataka, in all the City Municipal Council (CMC) and Town Municipal Council (TMC) limits, which is essentially urban areas, there will be no penalty for late payment of bills. The same does not apply for rural consumers,” said a senior official in Bescom. This rule is applicable only for this month, the official added.

Why the glitch?

Bescom officials said that with a long down time and the adoption of the upgraded software came teething troubles.

“We did a trial on all modes of payments, confirmed that they were working and then released the software for public use on March 20 morning. But because there was eight days of down time and because of heavy inrush, there were some small issues. Any IT system will face glitches when taking on such a load,” said Venkatesh, General Manager, (ICT and MIS), Bescom.

He also assured that, in the next two to three days, the portal’s accessibility will improve and there won’t be any further glitch.