Nearly 700 petrol pumps across the country on Friday started dispensing cash through debit card swipe in a bid to ease the cash crunch in the economy following the government’s decision to withdraw ₹1,000 and ₹500 notes.
The facility to provide ₹2,000 per day per card will be extended to 2,500 petrol pumps by this week end and will in due course be available at 20,000 outlets across the country.
The government had on Thursday decided to allow up to ₹2,000 per day per person to be dispensed against swiping of debit cards at select petrol pumps where Point of Sale (POS) machines of SBI are already available.
POS machines are the machines which are generally used for debit or credit card transactions.
Petrol pumps have been accepting old and now-defunct currency notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations and the same will continue till November 24, 2016.
There is no shortage of petroleum products at the petrol pumps and consumers can purchase them as per their needs, an official statement said.
As of 1600 hours on Friday, “cash dispensing facility had become operational at 686 retail outlets”, it said.
Of these, 350 outlets are of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), 266 Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and 70 Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL).
Of these, 350 outlets are of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), 266 Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and 70 Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL).
“The public sector oil companies, namely IOC, BPCL and HPCL, in association with State Bank of India, have come forward to ease some of the challenges being faced by the common public regarding availability of currencies for day to day transactions, post demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes,” the statement said
