There has been a constant hike on the fuel prices for past one month. The fuel prices will be hiked further this month too as Saudi Arabian region has decided to increase the petrol prices yet again.
“The target is to cut output by 1.8 million barrels a day, nearly equal to India’s daily import of 1.9 million barrels, with a view to sucking out stockpiles and rebalance market. This is bad news for fuel consumers in a country such as India which imports nearly 80% of its oil needs. Through much of 2015 and 2016, fuel bill shrunk for consumers as oil prices tumbled some 70% from 2014 high of $112 a barrel. Lower oil prices reduced India’s import bill and eased subsidy burden on the government.”
From December 13 onwards, the consumers started getting 0.75 percent discount on petrol and diesel at petrol pumps run by State Oil Companies.
“The discount will be credited to the customers’ account by way of cashback within maximum three working days.”
-Indian Oil Corporation had said
Discount on petrol and diesel purchases offered from Mid Dec
It is a government-led move to push the economy further towards a cashless society and to promote the use of digital platforms for making payments. “As a part of these initiatives to promote cashless transactions Government of India has announced to incentivise petrol/diesel customers transacting at PSU petrol pumps by way of 0.75 percent discounts when a person uses debit/credit cards, mobile wallets and prepaid loyalty cards”, the statement added.
The cash back option has been opted for by the government since the direct discount did not seem feasible. “We have an arrangement with a few leading banks with regard to terminalization of our retail outlets and through them, we have covered 56% of our retail outlet network for acceptance of credit/debit cards”, Indian Oil Corporation Limited stated in an e-mail.
The state-run petrol pumps offering this discount include Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL).
After the demonetisation upheaval led by Modi government, transacting has become a hassling process. Digitisation is being promoted in order to push the economy towards a cashless society.
