You can now pay national, local gov’t services bills through e-wallet app

July 20, 2022 - 5:24 PM
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Youth using smartphones
Stock photo of people using smarthphones. (Pixabay/Dean Moriarty)

Filipinos can now pay their national and local government services bills using their smartphones.

One of the country’s top e-wallet providers, GCash, recently revealed that it expanded its payment feature to more than 1,500 partner billers. This includes its partner national and local government agencies accepting digital transactions.

An e-wallet is a contactless payment method that allows users to use their smartphones to check out at a payment terminal.

Filipinos can now settle payments for National Statistics Office birth or marriage certificates, National Bureau of Investigation clearance, and even Metropolitan Manila Development Authority traffic fines through the app’s Pay Bills feature.

The feature also allows users to pay for real property and business taxes with select local government units and settle tax payments to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Easier travel

To lessen the COVID-19 transmission, the Department of Transportation directed all tollways to adopt a radio frequency identification or an RFID system in 2020.

Motorists with Autosweep and Easy RFID can likewise top up their accounts with GCash.

According to Globe, when passing through a tollgate, the RFID sticker attached to vehicles “transmits digital data back to the reader and subtracts the payment without a cashier’s physical intervention.”

RFID top-ups will incur a P10 service fee for every transaction, and the payment will be posted in real-time.

Reminders

The digital wallet app enables users to save their billing information, so they do not need to re-enter their account number and contact details each time they wish to pay their bills.

The Pay Bills feature also sets reminders for the next payment date, avoiding penalties and missed payments of its users.

GCash is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and reportedly has more than 60 million users nationwide.