Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) oil companies will bear the ₹3,000 crore cost on account of the discount of 0.75 per cent being offered on purchase of petrol and diesel through digital means, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has said.
Interacting with mediapersons after launching the customer awareness campaign as part of promoting cashless transactions at the BPCL outlet here on Friday, the Union Minister said it would still be profitable for the oil companies as it helped cash management. A sum of ₹7 lakh crore transaction took place annually through petrol pumps.
Pointing out that the petroleum industry has responded favourably to the cashless economy, Mr. Pradhan said 50 per cent of the 53,000 odd petrol pumps in the country were offering digital facilities to customers. In a few months, the cashless transaction would be available in all pumps as the banks had agreed to give POS terminals on priority.
The Union Minister said demonetisation had not affected the sale of petrol and diesel in any way. Last year, the industry had projected a growth of 8 per cent and sales are going up by 11 per cent for the last three years.
Digital transactions in petrol pumps that was just 10 per cent before December 2 has gone up to 25 to 26 per cent registering a growth of 150 per cent.
The Union Minister said the aim was to achieve cashless economy and the first step towards this was to reduce the cash transaction through all means available at retail outlets. Digi Dhan launched by the Centre to promote the initiative would benefit the citizens and would create a new spending behaviour model, he said.
Mr. Pradhan urged the PSU oil companies to go for personalised campaign in the next three months to encourage them to use credit/debit cards, loyalty cards, e-wallet, mobile wallet, and other cashless payment methods.
