No faith in Paytm: Petrol pump dealers write to oil corporations

Feeling insecure to go for transaction of money using system introduced by a “private company”, the West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association expressed their reservation over the use of Paytm in petrol pumps considering that they may get “cheated” at any point of time despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi being its face for “promotion”.

The matter is going to be one of the key issues that will be discussed in the forthcoming meeting of the National Petroleum Dealers’ Association scheduled to be held on December 26 and 27 in Chennai.

Tushar Kanti Sen, president of the West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association, said: “We had initially thought that taking payment through Paytm would be a good move for cashless transaction. But later, we realised that no one was there who will give us the guarantee that our money is in a safe hands. After all it is a private company. What would happen if we do not get the money back? 

Thus, we have expressed reservation over the use of the system to take payment from the people who are coming for refilling of their vehicles to petrol pumps.”

“Every day there used to be a transaction of lakhs of rupees in a petrol pump situated in a prime location. Thus, a huge amount of money would get rolled out through the online cashless system and it is not at all possible to take the risk of stepping into the system in which a private company is involved, despite the fact that it is being promoted using photograph of our Prime Minister,” he added.

The petrol pump owners from Bengal have also criticised the system of deducting an amount for the time being to give discount to buyers of petrol and diesel using debit or credit cards.

The oil companies have assured the petrol pump owners that the money would be later reimbursed to them.

As proposed, the petrol pump owners were told that 75 paise will be deducted from their commission that they get for selling one litre diesel. Protesting against the proposal, the association of the petroleum dealers wrote to the general manager of all the three oil companies and urged them to allow the money to be paid by the oil companies.

Stating that it would be quite difficult for the petrol pump owners to run their business as a major portion of their income would get deducted as the Centre announced to give discount for cashless transaction, Sen said: “No one knows when the pump owners will get that money back”.

Two representatives of the petrol owners will be present in the meeting of the National Petroleum Dealers’ Association in Chennai and they will be protesting against the move of the Centre that would leave a deep impact on the business of the petrol pump owners. Since it is a genuine problem for pump owners across the country, the representatives from Bengal would urge the members of its national body to take up the matter with the Centre.