HYDERABAD: Petrol pumps here have been doing lakhs of rupees worth business everyday solely through digital mode of payments post demonetisation. However, the 0.75 pc subsidy on fuel announced by the Centre for those who do digital payments has added to the woes of petrol pump owners in the city.
The subsidy that came into effect on December 13 now has to be borne by pump owners with no fixed timeline on how they will be reimbursed. Petrol dealers have witnessed a considerable increase in the percentage of sales done through Point of Sales(PoS) machines.
“Money, with the sales done through PoS, used to take just one evening to reflect in our bank accounts. But now it takes three days,” says Prashant K, member of Petroleum Dealers Association.
This is the crux of the problem that has resulted in the petrol pump owners struggling to find cash for restocking and eventually borrowing money to keep the pumps operational. Some of the PoS machines at petrol pumps are doing sales worth `20 lakh, with a three day delay that amounts to `60 lakh. “This amount gets stuck in the bank itself,” he added.
The subsidy amount for a digital transaction customer is to be credited back to the customers bank account.
“Now what the government is doing is that since they can’t pay to every customer through their PoS account directly. But the cost burden of the subsidy is borne by the dealer,” said Prashant.
Suppose a dealer does digital transactions of `1 lakh worth in a day, when the money gets credited to his bank account, 0.75 per cent subsidy is being cut from the dealers’ account. But it is the dealer’s money that the government is paying the customer. When that `1 lakh reflects in our bank account, the subsidy amount gets cut by the oil ministry,” he said.
The subsidy amount cut from us are to be paid back to us by the oil companies who are inturn paid by the oil ministry. There is no timeline as to when this amount will be credited back to the dealers. “It can comeback to us anytime and its credited to our corporation account,” said Prashant.
In the meantime the dealers struggle to keep business afloat.
“We need to pool the money from outside. Borrowing huge amounts to meet our needs raises questions from Income Tax Department (ITD),” said Prashant. The oil companies do not provide stock to the pumps on credit basis.
“If we stop the filling stations even for a day it will affect our reputation. So we have to pull the reinvestment to fill the station from somewhere else,” he added.