Patna, May 5: The State Bank of India (SBI) debit card will prove to be an additional boon for power consumers in the state as they can use it to pay electricity bills online.

The facility will benefit 1.5 lakh SBI account holders in the capital and 10 lakh people across the state.

Though the bill payment service would initially be available to SBI account holders, the board would later evolve a mechanism to extend the service to all its 29 lakh consumers in the state, including 3.25 lakh in Patna, in the next few months.

Energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav today inaugurated the online payment of electricity bills using SBI Internet banking and debit card at Vidyut Bhavan, the headquarters of Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB).

On January 11 this year, the board had launched a system of online payment of electricity bills using the Canara Bank debit card.