Mumbai | The Maharashtra finance department on Friday issued an order mandating the government offices to make payments of telephone, electricity, water and property tax bills exclusively through online mode starting June 16.

The order said the district treasury offices will no longer accept physical payment of bills after June 16, marking a significant step towards digitisation of administrative processes.

Substantial time and resources are currently spent every month on the manual processing of bills submitted by various government establishments. Traditionally, bills are physically delivered to the district treasury offices for verification and clearance. But shifting to an electronic system is expected to reduce this procedural burden, it said.

"To save time and energy, the state finance department today issued an order for making payment of such bills through e-Bill and e-Voucher," the circular stated.

Pune-based National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed the system, which underwent successful trial runs in Pune, Nashik and Nagpur. Encouraged by the outcome, the government has now decided to implement the system across the state, it said.

The new guidelines require that officers upload clear and legible receipts of payments and obtain an e-signature service developed by C-DAC. Details of each transaction must be filled on designated government websites, enabling higher officials to review the expenses periodically.

Once the online system is fully implemented, officers will no longer need to visit the district treasury office in person to submit receipts.