WBSEDCL Launches New Online Bill Payment System
West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) has completely redesigned its online bill payment system. This major update has introduced a brand new interface that has confused numerous customers. The process is now significantly different from the old one, which affects how consumers view, calculate and pay their electricity bills. The company says that the upgrade aims to streamline the billing experience.
New step-by-step process to pay your bill
To pay electricity bills on the WBSEDCL website, one has to go to the wbpower.gov.in homepage, click on ‘Online Payment’ and select the ‘Quick Pay’ option. The new screen will now display four orders: Pay Quotation, Postpaid Energy Bill, Smart Prepaid Offline and Prepaid. The correct choice remains ‘Postpaid Energy Bill’, after which they can enter their customer number and captcha for verification.
The biggest difference that the WBSEDCL website will notice is the absence of detailed bill information. Initially, the portal showed itemised data like billing month, total bill and outstanding balance. Now, the system asks the website to enter the payment amount manually without showing any breakdown. With this change, customers prefer transparency in their bill details.
Under the new system, a website will be able to accept payments of any amount between ₹50 and ₹100. However, they will have to manually set the payment amount. This change removes the ability to pay bills on a monthly basis. For example, a user can pay ₹600 out of a ₹900 bill, but there is no clarity on how the remaining ₹300 will be reflected in the next cycle, leaving customers uncertain about their claims.
The new minimum payment limit of ₹ 50 is creating problems for small customers. In fact, if a bill totals ₹ 25, the portal forces a minimum sale of ₹ 50. The system does not explain how the new amount will be used for unissued bills. While UPI and BillDesk gateways continue to work, these unclear payment rules have unnecessarily complicated the process for users.
Downloading payment losses has also become more time-consuming. Although the bill is generated after successful payment, users are still reporting long waiting times. The ‘View Payment Damage’ option on the homepage is currently not working. To retrieve the bill, customers have to go to the ‘Quick Pay’ → ‘Payment History’ section, enter their customer ID and download the train. Still, the bills are listed with cryptic rules like EHP instead of clear month markers.
Another major issue is the system’s inability to properly display late fees. However, the gateway does not display the total amount including penalty if payment is made after the due date. Also, popular apps like PhonePe and Google Pay currently show “unspecified time limit” when trying to pay WBSEDCL bills. These glitches have added to the frustration of customers across West Bengal.
Why WBSEDCL changed its system
While the official explanation has not been released, experts believe that WBSEDCL has introduced the new system to enable partial online payments, which were previously allowed only for core services. While this may reduce flexibility in the future, the change has been difficult. Users are demanding that the company restore transparency, clarify billing details, and soon reinstate third-party payments.
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