686 petrol pumps had started dispensing cash by 4 p.m today against swiping of debit cards

Cash dispensing facility had become operational at 686 retail outlets by 4 p.m today, of which 350 belonged to IOCL, 266 to BPCL and 70 to HPCL. The Public Sector Oil Companies namely Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, in association with State Bank of India, have come forward to ease out 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. 1000 currency notes.

Senior officials of IOCL, BPCL and HPCL, had a meeting with Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, State Bank of India, yesterday and it was 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. POS machines are the machines which are generally used for debit or credit card transactions. It has been decided to start this facility at around 2500 petrol pumps spread across the country including rural areas, where SBI POS machines are provided. The Oil Industry is also in further discussions with SBI and other Banks to extend this facility to over 20,000 petrol pumps gradually.

This facility will be available even after November 24, 2016. It may be noted that petrol pumps have been accepting currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 denominations and will continue to do so till November 24, 2016. There is no shortage of petroleum products at the petrol pumps and consumers can purchase them as per their needs.

Consumers are also advised to use cashless transactions - credit/debit cards, mobile wallets, loyalty programmes etc. for purchase of fuel so that there is no difficulty to consumers which is mainly associated with cash transactions. In this regard, such facilities for cashless transactions are already available with all the Oil Companies to which substantial number of people have already subscribed.

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