Telangana: Schools, companies buy petrol cards with old notes

Hyderabad: Following multiple instances of pumping unaccounted for money into fleet cards and recharge fuel cards by transport companies, industries, educational institutions and individuals on November 8 and 9, the Union Government has ordered oil companies like IOCL, HPCL and BPCL to not accept demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for these cards’ recharge.

Mr Rajeev Amaram, all-India joint secretary of Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers, said, “On November 8 and 9, all over the country, it is estimated that several crores of rupees of demonetised notes were deposited in the fleet cards and other fuel debit cards for recharge not only in Hyderabad but in other states too.”

Details for recharges of November 8, 9 sought
Fleet cards and other type of petro cards are mostly debit cards where cash can be deposited and used for fuel purchases across the country. An official of BPCL said, “There were around 20 instances of fleet operators recharging in lakhs on November 8 and 9. Around five individuals recharged more than Rs 1 lakh by paying cash in demonetised currency. We have now stopped the entire recharge by old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. But we are accepting new currency, demand draft or cheque. The government has asked for PAN numbers and details of all the customers who have paid demonetised notes on the first two days for recharging cards.”

The government has said if any customer recharges cards with cash payments exceeding Rs 2 lakh per day either by one transaction or collectively through many transactions, PAN numbers will be needed.

IOCL deputy manager-cum-fleet officer Mohammed Waseemuddin said, “The ministry of finance issued a circular on November 9 stating that demonetised notes are only acceptable for fuelling and not for recharge cards to avoid converting  black money into white. We are following those guidelines. As the IOC introduced an E-pay system a few days before demonetisation, it has become easy for us. With jurisdiction, there has not been any cash transactions.”

Petrol bunks have received a huge amount of cash over the past few days. Petrol bunk owners claim that the cash is from long and short pending debts and it is the duty of the repayer to explain how he got the cash. Schools, industries and pharma companies, too, are clearing debts and paying advance cash. As per rules, any transaction above Rs 20,000 has to be  through cheque or other banking modes. The association has warned bunk owners not to accept any unaccounted for cash as it might lead to trouble for them.

Mr Rajeev Amaram, all-India joint secretary of the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers, said, “We are taking only advances for fuel till November 24, and for pending debts they are paying in old demonetised cash. There are some black money hoarders approaching us but I appeal to all dealers not to accept them and invite trouble. There are around 7,200 petrol pumps in AP and Telangana state.”

Coordinator of the oil industry in Telangana Ch Srinivas said, “In the first two days there was an increase in consumption of 15 to 20 per cent. As people have already filled enough fuel, it has now normalised.”