Petrol Pumps In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka To Refuse Payment By Card

Petroleum dealers in Tamil Nadu announced on Sunday that they will not accept plastic money starting January 9, protesting a one percent levy plus taxes on all transactions made through debit and credit cards, prompting harried consumers rush to fuel outlets.

The Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association told the Press Trust of India that it has received an intimation from banks that a merchant discount rate of one per cent will be levied on all transactions done at the retail fuel outlets from January 9.

Protesting the move, Murali said their margins were fixed on a per kilolitre basis and that they did not have scope to absorb these charges.

"We have specific mechanisms to compute the margin and these do not have any scope for credit/debit card merchant discount rate. This will lead to financial losses for the dealers," he said.

Further, bankers were also "delaying payments" and not settling the entire dues, he alleged.

In Bengaluru, Ajay Bansal, the president of the All India Petroleum Dealers Association told the Times of India that “all pump owners are firm in their decision to withdraw card swipe machines from intervening midnight of Sunday and Monday.” The report added that HDFC Bank and Axis Bank sent notices to dealers on Saturday night to inform them about the surcharge. “We are not charging any transaction fee on card payment from tomorrow,” an ICICI Bank spokesperson told BloombergQuint.

The Tamil Nadu dealers have requested oil marketing companies and various authorities to intervene and address the situation.

Meanwhile, the announcement prompted motorists to rush to fuel outlets to fill their vehicle tanks by making payments through debit and credit cards.