The All India Petroleum Dealers Association has offered to begin dispensing up to Rs 2,000 at select public sector petrol stations across the country, after the Centre demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8.
After a meeting between State Bank of India chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and senior officials of Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum, it was decided that the facility will first be available at around 2,500 petrol stations with State Bank of India point-of-sale machines, and will later be extended to around 20,000 more.
The first few machines will be up and running in a few days, sources told NDTV. The facility will next be extended to outlets that have HDFC, Citibank and ICICI machines, The Times of India reported. AIPDA president Ajay Bansal told The Times of India, “At petrol pumps, we will swipe and once the transaction is cleared, hand over the money. So it will be quicker and people can come to get cash even after work.”
The facility will be available even after November 24, which is the final day that petrol pumps can accept old currency. Oil companies have also said they will launch awareness campaigns to help shift customers to cashless transactions.
The surprise decision to demonetise high-value currency has met with massive criticism from Opposition parties, which have also brought up the matter in Parliament. The Congress has accused the government of introducing “financial anarchy” in the country because of the sudden shortage of cash. However, the Reserve Bank of India has said there is enough cash in the country. Jaitley questioned the opposition expressed by the Congress to the move and said the party had “vested interests”.
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