Kolkata: The petrol pumps in the city are facing a tough time paying the balance amount to the customers with the inflow of notes of Rs 2000 denomination increasing by 12 to 15 times.
Since May 20, after the announcement of the gradual phasing out of Rs 2000 notes by September was made by RBI (Reserve Bank of India), the general populace has gone into a frenzy and it seems that petrol pumps have emerged as one of the favourite locations for disposing of these notes.
“Usually, the petrol pumps are used to get an average of 20-25 notes of Rs 2000 denomination. But post the announcement, the outlets are getting 270-280 notes daily on an average,” Prasenjit Sen, joint secretary of West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association said.
Sen said that they will hold a meeting on June 5 to decide how to deal with the situation of the spurt in the flow of Rs 2000 notes. “We will take a call on whether we will continue to accept Rs 2000 notes or to what extent we will do so,” he added.
Infact some petrol pumps in the city were compelled to refuse customers giving Rs 2000 notes after a certain point in time. “A few days back, we ran out of change, due to the steep increase in cash flow particularly Rs 2000 notes and had to deny accepting such notes, an employee of a petrol pump said.
“A good number of payments in my petrol pump is through QR code scanning or credit/debit card. But in the last few days, the cash transactions have risen significantly and we are really struggling to pay the balance amount to the customers,“ another petrol pump owner said.