Punjab National Bank Has Stopped Digital Payment Incentive For Fuel Purchase
New Delhi:
With oil marketing companies (OMCs) stopping paying the 0.75 percent incentive while buying fuel through a digital mode at gas pumps, the state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has stopped passing the benefit on to its customers.
The city-headquartered lender stopped passing on the benefit last month, citing that the facility has been withdrawn by OMCs.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation has announced that the OMCs (Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) have decided to end the 0.75 percent incentive for fuel purchases for all digital payment methods, according to a PNB notice on its website.
The lender said it has stopped passing on the 0.75 percent fuel incentives as of May this year.
“Punjab National Bank has implemented the said changes with effect from May 10, 2022 and as such no more incentive will be given to cardholders for their transactions on PNB PoS (Point of Sale) terminals at a gas station,” PNB said.
The government had asked the three retailers to give a 0.75 percent discount on card payments for fuel purchases following a widespread cash shortage in late 2016 after demonetizing 86 percent of the notes in circulation.
Digital payments include payments via credit cards, debit cards, online payments and other modes such as UPI (Unified Payments Interface) applications from Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe.
Initially, the 0.75 percent fuel incentive was removed while credit card payments were made following the withdrawal of such debit card facilities.
The OMCs have now also withdrawn the fuel incentive facility for all other digital payments.
As of December 13, 2016, a 0.75 percent discount was offered to those who used plastic money to buy gasoline and diesel. This discount was given as cashback, which was credited to the buyer’s account within three days of the transaction.
