CHENNAI: Petrol pump operators the state have threatened to stop accepting UPI and other digital payments across the state, citing a growing risk of arbitrary bank account freezes and police action arising from disputed transactions linked to cybercrime investigations.
Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association (TNPDA) president KP Murali, who wrote a letter to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, said dealers were being treated as suspects in cybercrime cases despite they having no means of verifying the identity or source of funds of customers who pay digitally.
The association’s roughly 5,000-odd outlets across TN process between 200 and 500 digital transactions a day on an average, with digital payments now accounting for more than half of revenue at some stations.
Murali said banks were placing liens on dealers’ accounts, and in some cases freezing entire accounts on instructions from cyber-crime authorities investigating disputed transactions - actions he called disproportionate to the underlying disputes. He also cited cases of dealers being picked up during early morning hours and held for questioning without being told the specifics of the transaction under investigation.