In what could be a big relief for the people across the country, the petrol pumps on January 8 asserted that they were postponing their decision to protest by not accepting debit and credit cards.
The petrol pumps have now said that they will accept plastic money till at least January 13. The decision came soon after the banks deferred their decision to charge 1% transaction fee on card payments.
“Petroleum minister has assured us that this issue will be resolved by January 13, so we have decided to defer our strike till then,” DPDA told ANI.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan asserted that the selected banks and oil companies will sit and resolve the issue together adding that the petrol pumps will have to follow the government order.
Petrol pump owners have to follow govt.’s decision there is no question on it. The issue will be resolved very soon: Dharmendra Pradhan
— ANI (@ANI_news) January 8, 2017
Negotiating b/w banks&oil marketing cos. Surcharge will not be imposed on customers as well as on petrol pump owners: Dharmendra Pradhan pic.twitter.com/lr3wgPFl8P
— ANI (@ANI_news) January 8, 2017
In a sudden move, petrol pumps across the country on January 8 said that they won’t accept credit or debit cards from midnight as the banks were levying an extra charge on these transactions. According to the All-India Petroleum Dealers’ Association (AIPDA), this will apply to cards from HDFC, Axis Bank and ICICI.
The All India Petroleum Dealers’ Association has also written to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying “HDFC and other banks” were levying the extra charge and since there has been no word of passing the charge to consumers, the dealers will sustain a loss.
The association also said that the move will cause huge inconvenience to customers but they have decided to go ahead of with their decision since they have no option.
Cashless transactions have gone up at petrol pumps since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision of demonetising 500 and 1000 rupee notes on November 8. And with the government pushing for cashless transactions, there have even been calls to stop the 2% fees that the banks levy on credit card transactions.
