Dubai Municipality and Dubai eGovernment launch online payment facility

The new ePay service, part of the Dubai eGovernment initiative, allows customers to pay bills and invoices online using a Visa or MasterCard credit card or through an eDirham smart card. Customer payments are processed using the secure Electronic Payment Gateway of Dubai eGovernment.

The announcement was made at a press conference on November 17, 2003, addressed by Hussain Nasser Lootah, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Environment and Public Health and Head of eGovernment Committee, and Salem Al Shair, Director eServices, Dubai eGovernment.

Speaking at the event, Hussain Nasser Lootah said Dubai Municipality's eGovernment initiative, launched in October 2001, had achieved its strategic objectives of reducing time taken to deliver services, improving internal processes, providing tangible benefits and enhancing customer satisfaction, by leveraging leading edge technology.

"The success of our eGovernment initiative is reflected in the rising number of online transactions on a daily basis. Now that the online payment service is in place, we are confident that there will be a continuous rise in customers paying bills online as more people become aware of the service," said Lootah.

Salem Al Shair said: "Dubai Municipality is a dynamic organization that has to interact with thousands of customers every day. The number of people visiting its offices to pay bills and invoices is phenomenal. Dubai eGovernment's ePay system has created a dynamic solution for enabling online payment, and we are pleased that Dubai Municipality is utilizing this service to serve the community and businesses more effectively."

"Dubai eGovernment has incorporated high quality security features into its online payment system, in order to provide state of the art solutions to online users," Al Shair added. "By offering this system to an increasing number of government departments, we are getting closer to our strategy of providing 70 per cent of Dubai Government's services to public through electronic channels by 2005. We are positive Dubai Municipality will be able to deliver enhanced customer satisfaction using our online payment service."

Initially, fourteen services are supported by the ePay service. Another four services, including parking fines and Dubai Central Laboratories Services, are to be added to the list shortly.

Currently, the ePay service allows customers to pay online using a Visa or MasterCard credit card or an eDirham smart card. Shortly, Dubai eGovernment's online payment gateway will also support account-to-account bank transfers.

The online transaction service of Dubai eGovernment has been designed to allow customers to centrally view and process their transactions for bulk services through the Centralised Billing Service or individually through the corresponding eServices. The time spent by customers is reduced dramatically since multiple payments can be cleared in one online transaction.