Letters: Push for plastic card

With reference to “Midnight truce: Fuel pumps to accept plastic till Jan 13” (January 9), the banks in question are well within their right to levy certain charges on the purchase of petrol and diesel at fuel pumps. But, as the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers has claimed it would directly impact on their margins, they would obviously not entertain the use of plastic cards at their pumps. Though the decision has been deferred till January 13, it would be a huge setback for the government if petrol pumps do not allow transactions through credit and debit cards because only recently the Centre had given some discount on usage of plastic cards at the stations to encourage cashless transactions there.

A majority of the transactions does take place in cash at the moment, especially in rural and semi-rural areas. But in cities people do use debit or credit cards to pay at pumps. So all the stakeholders — banks, pump owners and the government — need to sit together before January 13 to reach a consensus in the larger interest of the nation.

Bal Govind, Noida

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