By Alang Bendahara
THIS month the Citizen E-Payment (CEPat) digital platform will celebrate its third anniversary. To learn more about the service, which has been defined as a centralised electronic payment platform for Selangor government payment services, Selangor Journal interviewed Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU) Strategic Planning director Mazlan Mahadi.
Mazlan said CEpat, which was introduced on August 21, 2019, and uses cloud-based technology to ensure it is easily accessible to users, has 85,000 users as of July 2022.
“With an enhanced and improved version of the platform set to be launched by the end of this year, we have set the target to get 500,000 users for the service,” he said in a written reply to our query.
Mazlan said the idea for CEPat came during the 2016–2017 period, at a Smart Selangor lab with local councils and government agencies organised by SSDU where many participants gave feedback that they wanted the state government to set up a single digital window for the public to access their services as they already have their own mobile app and web pages.
During a citizen engagement event later, many people again asked for a ‘one-stop platform’ to deal with state government services. That led SSDU to come up with the CEPat mobile app, which links citizens to the local councils, enabling them to pay for assessment tax, compounds as well as parking summonses, licences, utility bills and prepaid card top-ups. It is also equipped with the Scan to Ride feature for Smart Selangor Bus users.
Faster and paperless
Mazlan said the key component of Selangor becoming a Smart State by 2025 is its citizens’ ability to access public services digitally, which enables government services to be conducted in a faster, paperless and more cost-effective way.
“As such, the development of CEPat is the main enabler in this ambition and one of the ways to lead all the local councils and Selangor citizens towards the Smart State plan. Via CEPat, the local councils can access any data from any government department in Selangor in real-time.
“To achieve that, however, Selangor needs to educate its local councils on smart governance in using the CEPat platform,” he said.
Settling bills
Mazlan said the introduction of CEPat, which took place almost half a year before the Covid-19 hit, has tremendously helped the local authorities in its revenue collection.
“Back in early 2020 when we were dealing with Covid-19, CEPat helped most of the citizens and business owners to settle their payments to the local authorities as well as the state government.
The local councils also gave us a very good response because this application helped them get collections during the lockdown,” he said.
He added that currently, nine local councils have adopted CEPat pay and rental assessment, while others are in the process of doing so.
Cashless bus ride
Since January 16, 2021, the use of the Scan to Ride feature on CEPat has been made mandatory for all rides on Smart Selangor buses.
“As of April 1 this year, as the country transitioned into the endemic phase, there has been an increase in the number of transactions by 100 per cent. This is because more citizens are going back to using public transportation as their daily routine to avoid being stuck in traffic,” he said.
Future of CEPat
Mazlan said the SSDU has new plans for CEPat, which will be unveiled by the Menteri Besar before the end of the year, probably in October.
“All I can say is that we’re planning to integrate all other government services to make things easier for Selangor citizens, as well as business owners and government officials. We will add a feature called Selangor Digital ID,” he said.
Mazlan also said they may extend their services to other states who have voiced an interest in emulating CEPat.
“We are also collaborating with other e-wallet players in Malaysia for additional payment options for our users. We already have the Tier 1 e-wallet players like Grab, Boost, WeChat pay or AliPay and we are going to include all other Tier 2 wallets,” he said.
To get more people to use CEPat, SSDU will organise a roadshow and engage with people in Selangor to get feedback on its service, as well as participate in state events such as the Selangor Penyayang Roadshow, which recently awarded a dedicated user of CEPat with a motorcycle in the Smart Selangor Citizen contest.
This article first appeared in the Selangor Journal monthly August edition, published on August 1, 2022.
