New Delhi: In a bid to ease cash crunch, the government on Thursday allowed dispensing cash of up to Rs 2,000 through debit card swipe at select petrol pumps.

The facility will be available at 2,500 petrol pumps.

"It has been decided that an amount up to Rs 2000 per day per person in cash can be dispensed against swiping of debit card from select petrol pumps where POS machines of SBI are already available," an official said.

POS machines are the machines which are generally used for debit or credit card transactions. All petroleum companies have decided to launch currency exchange counters at some of their outlets from Friday.

In Telangana, withdrawals of cash will be permitted at several Points of Sales (PoS), including petrol bunks, from Friday. Hyderabad district collector Rahul Bojja said, “On Friday, we will issue a list of PoS centres in the city, including private hospitals and business establishments. Bank customers can swipe their cards at the PoS centres for utilising cash-back from the traders.”


Representatives from the oil companies — HPCL, IOCL and Bharat Petroleum — had approached chairman of the State Bank of India, Arundhati Battacharya, and discussed the possibilities of cash withdrawal through POS machines provided by the bank.

The chairman agreed to supply sufficient cash. The special counters will operate from 2,500 outlets across the country. HPCL spokesperson Mr Naik said list of petrol outlets in Telangana and AP states was yet to be released. “We will inform the public on the cash-back facility from Friday morning. The oil firms will extend a similar service at over 20,000 outlets gradually,” he said.