January 8, 2017
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.
According to Mumbai Petrol Dealers' Association, most of the petrol pumps are using HDFC Point of sale (POS) machines.
January 8, 2017
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.
According to Mumbai Petrol Dealers' Association, most of the petrol pumps are using HDFC Point of sale (POS) machines.
"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.
Protesting the move, Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association President KP Murali said their margins were fixed on a per kilolitre (KL) basis and that they did not have scope to absorb these charges.
"We have been informed by HDFC and other Bank that we will be charged 1% on all Credit Card Transactions and between 0.25% and 1% on all debit card transactions from 9th January 2017. The same will be debited to our account and net transaction value will be credited to our account. They have quoted RBI Circular DPSS.CO.PD.No.1515/02.14.003/2016-17 dated 16th December 2016 as the root cause of this debit. Unfortunately, neither that circular nor the circular referred to by the above said circular have any reference to Credit Card Charges or for not passing the same to the customers. We feel that HDFC Bank is using this as an excuse to improve their bottom line through transactions at fuel stations. Both RBI Circulars are enclosed along with HDFC Bank advice to dealers.
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.
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.
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.
All POS machine issuing banks who are not charging the same and are willing to adhere to existing commercial arrangements should correspond with us to let us inform our members to continue with accepting cards on their machines.
Regards,
AJAYBANSAL
President
ALL India Petroleum Dealers Association
Courtesy: Indian Express
