Dubai Municipality's online transactions via Dubai eGovernment's ePay crosses Dhs. 1 million in 6 months

Dubai Municipality became part of the centralised Dubai Government online payment platform that offers secure payment options to people and the business community.

ePay is a highly secure online payment service that allows registered users to pay for public utilities or fines using the eDirham card issued by the UAE Ministry of Finance and Industry, or a credit card. Payment can be done anytime from anywhere in the world at the touch of a key. According to Dubai eGovernment figures, 65 per cent of the Dubai Municipality total online payment is conducted by eDirham, while 35 per cent by credit cards.

Dubai Municipality offers a total of 76 on-line services. For the 90 per cent of services that require a payment, the customers can use the ePay gateway. Several of Dubai Municipality services use the ePay gateway including Application for Food Control Health Certificates, Clinic Health Certificates, Veterinary Health Certificates, Demarcation Services, Hazardous Waste Disposal, Engineering Materials Testing, Block Certification, Equipment Calibration, General Fines, Parking Fines, Land Allocation and Drainage & Irrigation.

"As a major government department serving a large number of people and organisations, Dubai Municipality has demonstrated leadership and has taken pioneering steps to adopt the Dubai eGovernment high quality services," said Mahmood Al Bastaki, Business Process Re-engineering Consultant, Dubai eGovernment.

"Manual transactions take time and put a financial burden on the system through the deployment of a large number of staff and cumbersome logistics. Dubai Municipality wholly understands the benefits from a system like ePay, which facilitates faster & easier revenue and fine collection through a secure online gateway."

"We would like to urge other departments to move away from manual transactions, as the system we have in place is safe to use, robust, well maintained and accurate (less prone to human errors)," added Al Bastaki. "More extensive use of ePay will accelerate the momentum towards a fully automated eGovernment thus establishing Dubai as a model society driven by technology and innovation."

"Dubai Municipality has always been at the forefront of introducing systems that eliminate queues and customer inconvenience," said Hussain Nasser Lootah, Assistant Director General for Planning and Building Affairs at Dubai Municipality and Chairman of the dubai Municipality e-Government Steering Committee. "The best of breed technology that powers ePay prompted us to join the new payment gateway, with the purpose of using our staff for doing core jobs, rather than accepting payment, which can be done faster and more efficiently through online systems."

"The response to payment of fees and fines using the ePay system has been tremendous, as proved by the figure of Dhs. 1 million in six months," added Ahmed Bahrozyan, Head of Dubai municipality's e-Government Services Section. "We expect this number to rise sharply as a result of increased awareness about the convenience & security provided by ePay. We are positive in the next few months, our collection from online payments would be significantly higher."