BSP wants all state agencies onboard EGov Pay this year

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) wants to onboard all government entities in its electronic payment facility for taxes, permits, fees and other obligations by the end of the year as part of efforts to curb revenue leakages and slow the spread of COVID-19 infections.

In his weekly virtual press conference, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the EGov Pay facility has now 387 government billers from just two entities when it was launched in 2019.

This represents 90 percent of total government billers scheduled to be captured in the digital platform for the year 2021.

“Amid the sustained rise in billers, the BSP is not far from onboarding 100 percent of the target number of participating government entities this year,” Diokno said.

He said the BSP continues to closely work with the payments industry, led by the Philippine Payments Management Inc. (PPMI) to onboard government institutions and PESONet participating financial institutions.

Latest data showed transactions using EGov Pay rose year-on-year by over 5,000 percent in volume and almost 2,000 percent in value as of end-May.

“All these EGov Pay numbers show the dramatic shift of payments made to government into digital form,” Diokno said.

The BSP chief also said the payment of fees related to securing clearances and taxes drive most of the utilization of the facility.

According to Diokno, consumers and firms now use the facility to pay not only national government agencies, but also state colleges and universities, water districts and local government units.

Through EGov Pay, he said the government makes itself more accessible to Filipinos.

“Aside from curbing revenue leaks, fostering better audit trail and enhancing transparency, the wider usage of EGov Pay is seen to promote efficiency in the country’s revenue generation efforts under the New Economy,” Diokno said.

Filipinos use EGov Pay by simply initiating payments through the Link.Biz portal of the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines that direct them to the PayGate platform of the Philippine Clearing House Corp. (PCHC).

This platform allows payors to choose the payment service provider from which funds will be transferred to the government via the PESONet, a batch electronic fund transfer facility which can be considered as an alternative to the paper-based check system.

Under its three-year Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, the BSP has committed to shift 50 percent of total retail transactions to digital channels and raise the number of Filipino adults with bank accounts to 70 percent by 2023.

“The sustained growth in EGov Pay transactions provide strong support to BSP initiatives to digitalize person to government payments and to digitalize at least half of retail payment transactions by 2023,” Diokno said.