Petrol pumps not to accept payment through cards from Monday

Vehicle owners using cards to purchase fuel will face tough time from Monday as petrol pumps have decided not to accept payments through credit, debit cards since the banks have levied 1 per cent charge for every sale. “In view of the debit of MDR of 1% it has been decided to stop accepting payment through Credit/Debit Cards from 9th January 2017,” said Ajay Bansal, President of All India Petroleum Dealers Association, in a statement. Earlier last month, the government had announced .75 per cent discount on purchase of fuel through card.Bansal added that since their profit margin is fixed on a per KL basis, they could not bear additional charges levied by banks. “Our margins are fixed on a per KL basis and do not have any scope to absorb these charges. We have specific mechanisms to compute the margin and these do not have any scope for credit card MDR. This will lead to financial loses for the dealers,” he said.

He also alleged delay in settlement of dues by banks. “To compound maters further these credit card machine issuers are delaying settlements and not settling the entire dues as per our settlements. There are disputes about purchases being returned or not delivered. In a Retail Outlet there is no scope for returns or not being delivered a product once you have paid for the same. The reconciliation of swipes to amount being credit to our accounts is causing a lot of hardships and losses to a large percentage of the dealer community,” he added.

The ICICI bank, however, said that it will not charge any transaction fees. “We are not charging any transaction fee on card payment from tomorrow,” said ICICI spokesperson.