In the midst of the tussle between banks and petrol pumps, the central government on Monday declared that the pump dealers and customers do not have to pay the transaction cost after pump owners threaten to stop taking cards. Earlier yesterday, the petrol pump associations threatened that they won’t be accepting accept debit or credit cards anymore, despite no such notifications from the Reserve Bank of India on the matter. Speaking to reporters, one of the pump owners had said that for each payment on credit cards, the banks charged 1 percent. Speaking to reporters, Anurag Narain, president of the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association said that banks have levied a fee of 1 percent, because of which petrol pumps have an option but to stop EDC machines from operating.
The Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association had earlier said that it received a notice from banks that a Merchant Discount Rate of one per cent will be taxed on all transactions done at the retail fuel outlets Sunday midnight. As per KP Murali, the association had received the intimation from the banks on deciding to levy a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) of one per cent plus taxes on all transactions done at petrol pumps. He also said that the move was made unilaterally by the banks.
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Earlier in the day, the Centre has said that negotiations were underway between banks and oil marketing companies while assuring that surcharge will not be imposed on both customers and petrol pump owners. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had told the media that the customers would under no circumstances be levied any surcharge. He said that the petrol pumps wee naturally worried that all the surcharge would be theirs to bear but it would not be on their heads either. He added that the Oil Marketing companies and banks were in talks and the former had given incentives to further digital transactions. Further informing that the Centre has advised both the banks and the oil marketing companies that they need to come together and find out a solution, Pradhan asserted that all efforts are being made so that neither the customers nor the petrol pump owners are levied with any surcharge.
