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 Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, 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 ₹ 500 and ₹ 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 ₹ 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 ₹ 500 and ₹ 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.

Cash withdrawal at petrol pumps via debit card-enabled POS expands to ease currency shortage, with staged nationwide rollout. Public sector oil retailers and a public bank enabled cash dispensing at selected petrol pumps via SBI POS machines against debit-card swipes, subject to a per-person daily withdrawal cap, with an initial set of outlets operational and a planned staged expansion with banks and oil companies; the facility continues beyond a noted date when certain high-denomination notes were accepted, and petroleum product supply at pumps remains uninterrupted.