Demonetisation: Now petrol pumps to provide Rs 2000 a day

This move is seen as an attempt to tackle long queues of people turning up at banks and ATMs to exchange or deposit Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes, which lost their legal tender last week.

"It has been decided that an amount of up to Rs 2000 per day per person can be dispensed against swiping of debit card from select petrol pumps,” a government release said.

The pumps need to have a State Bank of India Point of Sale machine, which are used for debit or credit card transactions.

Petrol pumps run by the Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited where POS (point of sale) machines of the State Bank of India (SBI) are available will have the facility.

As per the government directive, petrol pumps have been accepting currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denominations.

They will continue to do so till Nov 24.

Earlier in the day, the government increased the withdrawal limit of money from banks for registered traders and marriage occasions, reports said.

Briefing the press, Secretary of Economic Affairs Saktikanta Das said that according to the new circular, registered traders can now withdraw upto 50,000 INR per week, as opposed to 24,000 INR ceiling set by the government earlier.

Citizens can also withdraw 2,50,000 INR from banks for marriage occasion, Das said.

However, government has now cut the amount one can exchange over the counter to 2000 INR.

Earlier it was set to 4500 INR.

Image: pixabay.com