Punjab National Bank Stops Digital Payment Incentive On Fuel Purchase

With oil marketing companies (OMCs) discontinuing to pay the incentive of 0.75 per cent while buying fuel via any digital mode at petrol pumps, state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has stopped passing on the benefit to its customers.

The city-headquartered lender discontinued to pass on the benefit from last month, citing that the facility has been withdrawn by OMCs.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation has informed that the OMCs (Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) have decided to discontinue 0.75 per cent incentive on fuel purchases across all digital modes of payments, according to a PNB notification on its website.

The lender said it has discontinued to pass on the 0.75 per cent fuel incentives from May this year.

"Punjab National Bank has implemented the said changes with effect from May 10, 2022 and as such no incentive be passed on to the cardholders for their transactions on PNB PoS (Point of Sale) terminal at any fuel outlet henceforth," PNB said.

Government had asked the three retailers to give a 0.75 per cent discount on card payments for fuel purchases after a widespread cash crunch in late 2016 following demonetisation of 86 per cent of currency notes in circulation.

Digital payments include making payments through credit cards, debit cards, online payment and other modes such as UPI (Unified Payments Interface) applications of Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe.

Initially, the 0.75 per cent fuel incentive was removed while making payments through credit cards following withdrawal of such facilities on debit card payments.

The OMCs have now withdrawn the fuel incentive facility on all other digital payments as well.

From December 13, 2016, a discount of 0.75 per cent was offered to those using plastic money to buy petrol and diesel. This discount was given by way of cashback, which was credited to the buyer's account within three days of transaction.