In a temporary relief for petrol and diesel customers, petrol pump owners tonight deferred till January 13 their decision to not accept credit and debit card payments for fuel sales after banks put off the move to levy the transaction (MDR) charge. To promote cashless transactions, the government had waived the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on fuel purchase post demonetization for consumers.

But after the expiry of the 50-day window, the banks have decided to levy MDR on petrol pump owners. This meant petrol pumps having to bear 1 per cent on all credit card transactions and between 0.25 per cent and 1 per cent on all debit card transactions from January 9.

The four banks that had said they would levy a charge on card usage at fuel pumps are HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank. 8 Tips To Go Cashless After Currency Demonetization

In protest of the move, petrol pump operators had decided not to accept card payments from tomorrow. "We have received official communication from oil marketing companies that the transaction fee charges have been deferred until January 13, 2017. AIPDA also has decided to defer the agitation until January 13," said Ajay Bansal, President, All India Petroleum Dealers Association (AIPDA), reports PTI. The decision covers a majority of the 56,000 outlets in the country.

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