Card payment will no longer accepted in Petrol pumps
Another shock for Indians. Yes, now card payments will not be accepted in Petrol pumps anymore. Petrol pumps across the country will not accept credit and debit card payments for fuel sales from today, after banks decided to put transaction charge on them instead of consumers. In order to promote cashless transactions, the government had waived the Merchant Discount Rate on fuel purchase post demonetisation for consumers.
But after the expiry of the 50-day window, the banks have decided to levy MDR on petrol pump owners. Association of petrol pump owners said that ‘informed by HDFC Bank that we will be charged 1 per cent on all credit card transactions and between 0.25 per cent and 1 per cent on all debit card transactions from January 9, 2017. The same will be debited to our account and net transaction value will be credited to our account’.
This is what President of All India Petroleum Dealers Association
On this decision, Ajay Bansal, president, All India Petroleum Dealers Association, said the bank has quoted Reserve Bank of India circular of December 16, 2016, for its action. He was quoted saying,
“Unfortunately, the circular has no reference to credit card charges or for not passing the same to the customers. We feel that HDFC Bank is using this as an excuse to improve their bottom line through transactions at fuel stations. ”
He further added, “We have specific mechanism to compute the margin and these do not have any scope for credit card MDR. This will lead to financial loses for the dealers. In a retail outlet, there is no scope for returns or not being delivered a product once you have paid for the same. The reconciliation of swipes to amount being credit to our accounts is causing a lot of hardships and loses to a large percentage of the dealer community. ”
Well, it seems like this another problem that people will face after demonetisation.
