Demonetisation cash crunch: 2,500 petrol pumps to dispense up to Rs 2,000 per day per person

In a bid to ease cash crunch, the government on Thursday allowed dispensing cash of up to Rs 2,000 through debit card swipe at select petrol pumps. The facility will be available at 2,500 petrol pumps. “It has been decided that an amount up to Rs 2000 per day per person in cash can be dispensed against swiping of debit card from select petrol pumps where POS machines of SBI are already available,” an official said. POS machines are the machines which are generally used for debit or credit card transactions. According to a press release by IOC, BPCL and HPCL petrol pumps will dispense the cash. [caption id=“attachment_3107126” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image[/caption] “In this regard, senior officials of IOCL, BPCL and HPCL had a meeting with Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, State Bank of India, today and a iot has been decieed that an amoutn up to Rs 2000 per day per persomn in cash can be dispensed against swaping of debit card from select petrol pumps where POS machines of SBI are already available,” the release said adding that this facility will be available even after 24 November. According to a report in The Times of India, over the next three days the facility will be extended to those petrol pumps with POS machines of HDFC Bank, Citibank and ICICI Bank. With the step, the government hopes to cover 20,000 more petrol pumps. However, the step is likely to crowd out the customers who come to fill up their tanks at these outlets. Keeping this in mind, the public sector oiul companies have urged the customers to use other cashless transaction modes to pay up at the fuel stations. “It is also requested that consumers should use cashless transactions - credti/debit cards mobile wallets, loyalty programmes etc, for the purchase of fuel so that there is no difficulty to consumers which is mainly associated with cash transactions,” the release said. With PTI