Petrol pumps defer decision of not accepting credit, debit cards for fuel purchase till January 13

Petrol pumps have deferred the decision of not accepting credit and debit cards for purchasing fuel till January 13.

Earlier various associations and petrol pump dealers had decided not to accept credit card and debit card payment from Sunday mid-night owing to banks levying 1 per cent of transaction charge.

Petrol pumps have been protesting against various banks' move of levying 1 per cent transaction charge on the use of credit and debit card, after banks decided to put transaction (MDR) charge on them instead of consumers. 

Before this announcement, ICICI bank had denied that it would not change any transaction charge on card payment for now.

After bank's notice, All India Petroleum Dealers Association in a meeting concluded that it will not be feasible for the petrol pumps owners to bear the extra cost owing to less margin in the business.

The President of Delhi Petroleum Dealers Association, Anurag Narain had said that they had no option left but to stop Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines from operating from pumps. He said petrol pump margins are fixed on a per kilolitre basis and do not have any scope to absorb these charges.

To promote cash-less transactions, the government had waived the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) 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.

Petrol pump owners association had said that they have been “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”.