Service On NSW Now Accepts Mobile Payments

|

nsw-mobile-payment

Now, NSW residents will be able to use selected smartphones to “tap and pay” for government services such as driving licence renewals over the counter by the end of the year as the state adopts new forms of electronic payment systems.

This policy has been praised by industry analysts, who say people will benefit from the government’s digital transformation agenda. Service NSW will be among the first government agencies in Australia to accept newer payment systems such as PayPal, Master Pass, Visa Checkout and Apple Pay, if and when it hits local shores.

Moreover, digital transactions via credit or debit card, initiated via a browser or mobile app, will also be ­supported.

“It’s time for government to support our citizens in paying the way they want to and that’s using new payment methods online or on mobile devices,” Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet said. “This solution will reduce duplication of payments infrastructure, streamline payment processes and deliver value for money.”

Mr Perrottet said Service NSW would “draw on leading payment technologies” to integrate with ­existing government systems over the next 12 months. “The payment services platform is due to be in service for transactions delivered through Service NSW by the end of the year,” he said.

It will eventually be rolled out to all state government agencies in a bid to reduce multiple payment systems and slash red tape.

A Service NSW spokesman said Roads and Maritime transactions would be the first to use the payments platform, which would interact with DRIVES (used by Roads & Maritime Services) and the Government Licensing Service — also used by several other agencies, including NSW Fair Trading. The spokesman said the first stage of the project to build the payments platform was under way with Azuron building standard payments pages and associated features of the platform. The initial piece of work is valued at $80,000.

Ovum financial services technology senior analyst Gilles Ubaghs said the move would provide convenience for the state’s residents while increasing the variety of payment tools available.

“The new government-run payments platform will essentially act as a payment gateway to the state’s various fee-collecting agencies, providing a similar payment experience and in theory increasing the range of payment service options available,” Mr Ubaghs said. “By operating a single platform, which in turn ties in with each state department’s back-office functionality, and subsequently their partner acquiring banks, this will in theory help to reduce costs by removing duplication efforts across the state’s payment functions. It will also make it easier to implement new payment options to consumers and end users. A single modern platform will be better able to cope with the variety of emerging payment tools emerging such as PayPal, and if it ever launches in Australia, Apple Pay.”

The analyst said other countries had in recent years introduced dedicated payment platforms across their range of services, most notably India with its PayGov India initiative.

“In a recent Ovum survey of payment-taking organisations globally, 58 per cent of municipal and government agencies said that payments were a part of their business strategy,” he said. “Seventy-five per cent of all organisations globally, including government and municipal bodies, agree that consumers want a broader choice of payment tools. The shift to more centralised government payment platforms are likely to become more common in the near term.”