Update: Neither customers nor petrol pumps will bear additional charges on digital transactions; issue will be resolved: Dharmendra Pradhan (ANI)— Business Standard (@bsindia) January 9, 2017 Earlier today: There appears to have been a face-off between banks and petrol pumps over the weekend, and it appears that the banks have blinked. Yesterday, as reported in The Hindu, All India Petroleum Dealers Association had said that they would stop card payments after banks said they would impose up to 1% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). MDR is the fee that Banks charge merchants for enabling digital transactions. On Sunday, Banks apparently deferred this 1% MDR for a few days, following which the Petrol pumps have also agreed to accept cards till January 13th 2016, according to the Times of India. This probably gives time for negotiation, but it doesn't mean that the issue has been resolved. Changes in MDR Up to March 31st, for Debit Cards, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed banks to charge merchants 0.25% of the transaction value as MDR, for transactions up to Rs 1000, and 0.5% from Rs 1000 to Rs 2000. Earlier, the debit card MDR for banks was capped at 0.75% of the transaction amount for value up to Rs 2000 and not exceeding 1% for transaction amount for value above Rs 2000. Several banks, including SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank had waived MDR charges on debit card transactions till December 31. MDR was much higher earlier: before the RBI guidelines, on Credit cards, merchants were charged a…
