Like bank employees, fuel outlet attendants too have had a harrowing time these past few days since people come to them with notes of large denominations. Many of them said their patience was exhausted talking to customers who were often rude in their demand for change.
“Most of the middle class customers have exhausted their Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes and are bringing in Rs. 2,000 notes. If they tank up for Rs. 1,000, we are forced to give them Rs. 1,000 in change and that would mean ten notes of Rs. 100, which is just not possible,” said a fuel pump attendant.
Fuel outlet managers said they were not getting enough change from banks though they knew their sales volume was high. “We easily require around Rs. 30,000 in notes of Rs. 100 a day. But we get notes for only Rs. 5,000-Rs. 6,000 and that too from other customers. Some people wait for a few minutes so that we can get Rs. 100 notes when others pay. But some others just refuse to wait and they also don’t tell us they have only notes of higher denominations. We cannot take back the petrol just because we don’t have change,” said an outlet manager.
Added to this is the recent announcement that cash can be withdrawn using electronic data capturing machines. These are outlets that are linked with State Bank of India accounts and debit cards can be used. However, customers do not realise that only a few outlets have such facilities.
“On Saturday, we had a tough time telling people they can’t withdraw cash at our outlet since we don’t bank with SBI. What we do at present is withdraw cash from our current account by cheque and the amount gets credited to our account the next day. However, on Sunday, none of the fuel outlets dispensed cash as banks were closed,” said a dealer. Officials of Bharat Petroleum Corporation said that talks were on to tie up with other banks to dispense cash.
