Bhubaneswar, Dec. 27: The Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha (Cesu) is yet to provide its customers with the chance to use the cashless option to pay electricity bills in the state capital.

Bill collection centres of the firm accept payments through cash or cheque. However, point-of-sale (PoS) machines are yet to be installed at these centres.

Arabinda Dhal, 39, finance professional and resident of Rasulgarh, said that ever since the demonetisation move, people like him had started to prefer cashless transactions.

"The restriction on withdrawal is still there. But, payment through debit or credit cards is not possible at the bill collection centre at Rasulgarh as there are no swipe machines available," he said.

Customers who run high electricity bills every month have been seeking PoS machines at the collection centres. A.K. Agarwal, 65, a sweet factory owner from Rasulgarh Industrial Estate, said the monthly bill of his factory comes to an average of Rs 30,000 every month.

"In these tough times, when money has become scarce, it is difficult to pay in cash with the new notes. I can pay by cheque. However, paying through debit card gets me some cash-back points," he said.

The situation at the firm's Nayapalli office is also the same. The bill collection staff here insist on cash payments, alleged Naresh Swain, 56, businessman and resident of Nayapalli.

Cesu has an online portal through which customers can pay their electricity bills. But, it has its restrictions. The portal does not allow RuPay card owners to pay their bills. Besides, barring a few public sector banks, private banks have not yet been included in the payment system.

G.C. Satapathy, 69, medicine specialist and resident of Baramunda, said installing point of sale machines at the bill collection centres would save all customers, and especially senior citizens, the trouble of waiting in long queues to pay their bills.

"Cesu's bill collection system is medieval wherein the person on the other end of the counter manually enters the customer and payment details on the receipt," he said.

Satapathy said this leaves room for error as often people get incorrect receipts.

"Manual transactions are always prone to errors especially during rush hours," he added.

Senior general manager (electrical), Electrical Circle No 1, Bhubaneswar, S.K. Swain admitted that point of sale machines and other cashless means of transaction are yet to be installed at Cesu's bill collection centres.

"It will be done soon. Talks are on with the banks to install point of sale machines at the bill collection centres. We hope it will be done in another two or three months," he said.

Cesu has a total of nine operating revenue districts under its jurisdiction.