Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has taken a step further to provide its stakeholders in this premier freeport a faster and more convenient way of paying their bills.
SBMA recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Intercommerce Network Services Inc. (INS) and I-Pay MYEG Philippines Inc. (IPMPI) to further enhance its Electronic Bills & Payment System (eBPS).
“I think this eBPS would help our stakeholders a lot in terms of convenience in bills payment. This will save them time and fuel. Instead of going to our Treasury office or to any Landbank branch, they could just pay online or visit a partner merchant, at their convenience,” SBMA chairman and administrator Rolen C. Paulino said.
In September 2015, the SBMA first launched the eBPS, initially with the LandBank of the Philippines (LBP) as a collection system partner, and INS as provider of electronic payment platform.
However, with the emergence of a vast number of electronic payment systems, especially due to the restrictions during the pandemic, the demand for additional payment channel options encouraged the partnership to venture into other possibilities to explore further enhancement that will provide efficiencies to SBF stakeholders.
So in 2021, the INS introduced IPMPI to the SBMA to provide an additional electronic payment and collection system partner, giving stakeholders more options of choosing from over 90,000 electronic payment channels.
“We are more than happy that MYEG will be part of this initiative together with Intercommerce. Thank you very much for the partnership and for the trust that you have given MYEG,” said Ann Margaret Saldana, IPMPI Chief Executive Officer.
Saldana said that electronic payment channels such as 7-eleven, Cebuana Lhuiller, Palawan Express for cash payment, and GCash, Maya, GrabPay, Shoppee Pay, as well as credit cards for mobile payments, will be available with the intervention of MYEG.
She also assured that INS and MYEG will be working hand in hand to make sure that the citizens will be familiar with the platform that they could use at their preferred convenience without having to go to different offices to settle payments thru cashiers.
Moreover, INS president Francis Norman Lopez sees the partnership also as opening doors to other payment requirements of the agency.
“We hope that this would also be extended to the other payment requirements of SBMA like port facilities or services, and payment of other transactions of the SBMA. For that matter, I think, SBMA would be the first that would cover all its electronic payment transactions,” Lopez said.
Meanwhile, Paulino added that with the eBPS, the SBMA would also be complying with its obligations to the national government–Ease of Doing Business Act for providing convenience to stakeholders, ARTA for paperless transactions by opening digital payment services, and Executive Order 170 or the Adoption of Digital Payments for Government Disbursement and Collections.
With this MOA the SBMA shall authorize the INS and IPMPI for a period initially of one year to enhance the electronic billing and payment system and include MYEG, and its partners, as an additional payment gateway and to utilize the IPMPI’s multiple payment channels.
The implementation of the eBPS will be a big plus-factor to investors trying to make it happen in the Philippines, the convenience of payment transactions when they invest in Subic Bay.
The eBPS will be re-launched virtually on July 25 and 26 via Google Meet. (SBMA Media Production Department)
