Government on Monday announced that no extra charge will be levied for card payments at petrol pumps. The decision came soon after petrol pump dealers threatened to protest.

“Petrol pumps will continue to accept card payments post January 13. Oil companies and banks are discussing who is to bear Merchant Discount Rate charges,” said Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

On Sunday there was huge ruckus created by the petrol pump owners. They threatened to stop accepting credit and debit card payments in protest after the government announced that one per cent transaction fee will be implied by certain banks for card payment at the pump.   

However, in the evening, banks delayed the decision to for few more days till the problem is solved in discussion with the petroleum ministry. After banks made the announcement, petrol pump owners too delayed their decision and said that they will accept card payments for now.

“The All-India Petroleum Dealers Association has received an official communication from oil marketing companies (OMCs) that with the intervention of petroleum minister the transaction fee charges have been deferred till January 13, 2017. AIPDA also has decided to defer the agitation till January 13, 2017," said the association in a late night statement.

"Our margins are not so much that we can accept this one per cent charge on each transaction. We have specific mechanism to compute the margin and these do not have any scope for MDR charges. This will lead to financial losses for the dealers," said Mr Bansal.

A senior official from HDFC bank told that "the imposition of one per cent transaction charge in the form of MDR was an industry decision which has been taken by all the banks. We may have been one of the first to notify the petrol pump owners but this is a decision taken together by all the banks. It is not a decision only taken by us."

Petrol Pumps to Protest After Jan 13, No Cards Will be Accepted

BY M. DIVYA SRI