The online payment services provided by Dubai eGovernment Department through the internet and mobile phone for instant payment of government fees are experiencing increasing demand by the public with more than AED 2bn collected in the first half of 2012, representing a 21 per cent increase over the previous year. ePay enables customers to electronically settle their dues for various Dubai government services in a secure manner.
More than AED 2.07bn through 1,641,556 transactions was collected through ePay on behalf of all the participating local entities by the end of June 2012. This compared to a total of AED 1.7bn through 1,396,973 transactions in the first half of 2011.
Dubai Customs, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Dubai Health Authority, the Department of Economic Development and the Roads and Transport Authority were the top five government entities respectively in terms of the electronically collected amounts.
Ahmed Bin Humaidan, director general of Dubai eGovernment said, “These results clearly indicate the favourable pace of eTransformation in Dubai as reflected by the increasing adoption of ePay as a preferred mode of payment to complete government transactions on one hand and the higher degree of confidence shown by customers in the efficiency and safety of this option on the other.
“This service allows both corporate and individual customers to pay online for government services either through credit cards or direct debit from the customer’s account in the five participating banks: namely, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Union National Bank.”
He noted that payment through credit cards was still the customers’ top preferred option with the amounts electronically collected through credit cards exceeding AED 1.8bn. He also mentioned that the use of direct debit option grew noticeably during the first half of this year with the amounts collected through this option growing to around AED 247m through more than 450,000 transactions.