Petrol Pumps Stops Accepting Payments Through Credit, Debit Cards
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Amid the demand to make the country cashless here comes a jerk from petrol pumps. Debit or credit cards will not be accepted from midnight until further notice as it is learned banks are levying extra charge on the transactions.
According to All-India petroleum Dealers’ Association chief Ajay Bansal, as of now the move is only for cards from HDFC, Axis Bank and ICICI.
The decision may hit hard to consumers as well as to the government putting all the efforts to push cashless transactions.
Bansal said the three banks have sent notices about levying of MDR (merchant discount rate), which is 1 percent.
The association has written to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about the notices sent by three banks and as no such word was passed earlier the dealers will not accept cards from midnight.
The banks have notified to charge from January 9, Monday, 1 percent on all Credit Card Transactions and between 0.25 percent to 1 percent on all debit card transactions.
Delhi Petrol Dealers’ Association chief Anurag Narain said, “Earlier the customer used to pay surcharge, not the dealer. The banks are taking from customers, now they want to take from us as well. What are they trying to do?”
Since demonetization from November 8 the cashless transactions have gone up at pumps and in a move to further push towards online payment the government waived the 2 percent fees that banks levy on credit card transactions.
Source: http://www.smarttechtoday.com/petrol-pumps-stops-accepting-payments-through-credit-debit-cards/16859/
