PaySG
Digitise payments for government agencies
Background
As the economy began to open up after the initial travel restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore needed to charge inbound travellers for their swab tests and hotel stays when quarantined in Singapore. However, there were three key problems surrounding e-payments in the government:
- It was costly to set up new payment services
- There was a need for manual financial reconciliation
- It typically took 6 weeks to 9 months to set up a new payment service
Solution
PaySG was developed to enable digital payments for COVID-19 swab tests and Stay-Home Notices for incoming travellers to Singapore.
- Users receive a personalised payment link sent to their email, where they are directed to a personalised payment page. Upon checkout, they receive an official invoice/receipt
- There are various channels through which links can be generated - users filling forms on FormSG directly, government officers filling in a FormSG form, or a script that generates links to be sent in bulk
- PaySG uses FormSG’s webhook feature, Stripe for payment processing, and Postmark for transactional email templates and sending
Impact
- Facilitated > 234 payment transactions since Jun 2020
- Enabled 8 agencies to collect > S$250 million in Stay-Home-Notice and Swab-related payments
Team
Ang Yi Xin
| Kevan Tan
| Pallani Kumaran
| Huang Kaiwen
| Talitha Chin