Dubai: Revenues from online payments across the government entities in Dubai jumped 23 per cent generating Dh3.2 billion in the last nine months of 2012 comparing to Dh2.6 billion the same period last year, Dubai eGovernment (DeG) announced on Tuesday.
The increase in the number of transactions from 2,054,024 in the first nine months of 2012 to 2,448,147 transactions in the same period in 2012 reflects a shift in payment trends among Dubai residents, Ahmad Bin Humaidan, Director-General of Dubai eGovernment said.
He was speaking during a conference to announce DeG prepartion and plans for Gitex Technology Week 2012 from October 14 to 18 where it will host 26 government entities.
Dubai Customs, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), Dubai Health Authority (DHA), Department of Economic Development (DED) and Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) were the top five government entities respectively in terms of the electronically collected amounts.
The ePay and mPay are quick payment channels developed by Dubai eGovernment, particularly for use in situations where users must make instant payment of fines, fees for continued service or charges to avoid a new fine.
This service can currently be used to add funds to Salik accounts. Another service is the payment of fines to Dubai Police to help individuals who do not have enough cash to settle their fines while renewing their driving licence or car registration. The service can also be used to pay electricity bills with Dewa.
Bin Humaidan said payment through credit cards was still the customers’ top preferred option while the use of direct debit option grew noticeably during the first half of this year.
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: Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Union National Bank,” he added.
To reward customers for their trust in ePay, Bin Humaidan said that the ‘Best Online Customer’ campaign will continue and online customers could win laptops, iPads and smartphones from Dubai Police, Dewa, Dubai Municipality and RTA. Other than the daily winners being announced for ePay transactions, visitors to the Dubai eGovernment stand could also win instant prizes from presentations and customer satisfaction surveys.
New applications
Bin Humaidan announced that DeG would launch two new Iphone applications during Gitex.
He said; “The first was an mPay application for Dewa bill payments, Dubai Police fines and recharge of RTA Salik. The second mobile application was the Dubai Government application which can be used to access data on Dubai government entities, their location and contact details as well as submit electronic complaints and feedback.”
However, Bin Humaidan remarked that other mobile applications would also be released by Dubai government entities during the exhibition.
Bin Humaidan revealed that the unique design of the DeG stand at Gitex came about after consultation with its partners to best demonstrate their services effectively and interact with all customers, while at the same time reflecting an integrated approach through a unified system for administrative, infrastructure, information and core services connectivity in the field of eGovernment.
In anticipation of the Gitex Technology Week 2012, Dubai eGovernment has updated its event-dedicated website, http://gitex.dubai.ae, to include complete information on the participating government entities, agenda of the event, concluded agreements, lectures, press conferences and daily activities held on the sidelines of the event.
