The government of New South Wales (NSW) has started providing local citizens with the chance to pay for some online government services through the New Payment Platform (NPP).
Last week, the new near real-time payment method was released by the Department of Customer Service on the Liquor and Gaming portal by the state’s governmental authorities. The New Payment Platform is available and could be used alongside the payment options, such as BPAY, which already exist for local customers. It can be used by entities to pay their gambling and liquor licence fees, as well as so-called course costs for gambling certifications’ responsible conduct and alcohol-serving service.
It is the Australian financial technology company Azupay that supports the new payment method. By choosing the latter, customers are able to pay through a unique, one-off PayID that has been generated by QR codes while the payment is being processed. The single-use PayID is paid by the customers, with them using their online banking account directly. They are required to provide standard merchant information such as the amount paid, and a description of the payment is included automatically into the PayID.
According to Azupay, the fintech company supporting the NPP, the new payment portal for liquor and gaming transactions was the first consumer-to-business payment service in which PayID capabilities are used.
NPP-Supported Payments Expected to Be Implemented in Services Other than Liquor and Gaming
As explained by the company at the time the new portal payment option was released, the development of the NPP could pave the way to other NPP-supported payments to become available not only concerning liquor and gaming but to other services available at so-called one-stop shop services across the state of New South Wales.
A spokesperson of the NSW Department of Customer Service said for a local media that the Department would further reveal any future PayID offering to more agencies and transactions. Last week, Victor Dominello, the Customer Service Minister, used his official Twitter account to back the new payment service that is being rolled out across other services in the NSW.
Great to hear @azupay is commencing transactions on the Liquor and Gaming Portal, providing a low cost and real-time payment option for customers. Looking forward to seeing this rolled out in other agencies @NSWCustomer #nswpol
— Victor Dominello MP (@VictorDominello) May 26, 2020
The CEO of Azupay, Jean-Marc Barthe, explained that the NPP was used by the financial technology company to deliver real-time customer-to-business payments aimed at making money transactions fairer, faster and better for everyone. As shared by Mr Barthe, using a single-use PayID could be helpful to customers to make sure they avoid credit card debit, fees and charges, and to overcome the risk of making smaller or larger payments and chargebacks that are carried out as a result.
According to reports, the NPP is set to be leveraged by other governmental agencies, one of which is Services Australia. The latter has recently used the new real-time payment method to deliver disaster payments to Australian residents, who have been affected by the massive bushfires at the beginning of the year.
- Author
Daniel Williams
