Dubai: Dubai Municipality customers will no longer have to visit the offices of the civic body to make payments for the services they use.
They will now able to make the payments for all services of the civic body using the e-dirham, a smart payment option provided by the Ministry of Finance.
Customers can now pay all municipal fees from anywhere, saving time and effort, officials said at the 36th Gitex Technology Week Exhibition on Monday.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Younis Haji Al Khoury, undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, and Saif Ali Al Shehi, executive general manager of National Bank of Abu Dhabi, in this regard.
The agreement was signed a day after the ministry announced the launch of 630 e-kiosks across the country to enable the users to buy e-dirham cards and avail other services related to e-dirham.
“The municipality is keen to find different ways to help customers make payments,” Lootah told Gulf News after the MoU signing ceremony at Gitex.
“We are using a lot of systems and now we are introducing the e-Dirham. It is a federal government initiative which is very useful. We signed an MoU with the ministry and the bank so that we can make of this smart payment method for Dubai Municipality which is a local government body,” he added.
A new tab has been designed on the municipality portal for instant payment of the fees for municipal services using e-Dirham.
Customers can avail of the e-dirham payment service by entering the permit number of the municipal service they are opting for.
On entering the permit number, the system will show service details and the fees required.
Then the customer will be asked to enter the payment authorisation number of the requested service which will be provided by the service provider either directly by the employee or by email or SMS.
The customer can then make the payment using the e-dirham card and a receipt will be sent immediately and the administrative and legal procedures will follow.
e-Wallet
“We are aiming in the future to enable customers to use an e-wallet so that they can make all payments with their mobile phones without the need for using cash or card. We want the people to load the money on the e-wallet and use e-dirham from that wallet to make payments,” said Lootah.
The move is part of efforts to reduce the number of visitors to government departments. The municipality has a “zero visit” strategy which the civic body is trying to achieve by providing various smart services and payment methodsd
