Google Launches Bill Pay In India

Google announces a new service in India that will enable residents to pay their utility bills digitally.

According to news from BGR, Google India said Monday (Feb. 19) that Indian residents can now pay their water, electricity, DTH and mobile bills with Tez, the mobile payment app. Customers who use the digital payment platform won’t face any transaction charges.

Tez is built on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and, according to the report, with the new service, the mobile app will enable bill payment for more than 80 private and public utility companies around India.

“We are adding a specially designed bill pay experience in ‘Tez,’ which will enable users to make a wide range of bill payments, including electricity, water, gas, DTH and insurance from the app,” said Diana Layfield, vice president of Payments and Commerce, Next Billion Users, Google, in the report. Some of the utility companies that will accept bill payment via Tez include Reliance Energy, BSES and Dish TV, noted the report.

Tez also supports the Bharat BillPay system, which enables the mobile payment app to send users an alert when their bill is due. Users can pay the bill by tapping the biller’s name on the Tez home screen, reported BGR. Users would have access to their payment history and could manage bills from different accounts.

In the fall of 2017, Google India launched Tez, which connects directly to a user’s bank account and works with the United Payments Interface, which means it will integrate with any bank in the region that supports UPI. In addition to sending money, there’s Tez Shield, an always-active security feature designed to prevent fraud or hacking, as well as Tez Scratch Cards, which offers all Tez users the chance to win up to 1,000 rupees per week, or 100,000 rupees on “lucky Sundays.”