Fight over credit, debit card charges is avoidable

It changed with the onset of demonetisation. When the government decided to put the brakes on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, it asked banks not to levy card charge on petrol bunks. Personally, I did not understand why it ordered so. We can only guess. Maybe because it wanted more people to go cashless and a service charge for using cards would not have been encouraging. Soon, somewhere along the line, the government announced that post-Dec things would be okay. The banks understood this to mean they could revert to charging on the usage of credit card. And it is at this point the bunks cried, ‘foul.’ 

The point one finds difficult to answer is this: “Why should the petrol bunks bother? After all, the customer is paying for it.” Is it that the bunks have suddenly become very customer conscious? If that is so, the government should drop petrol prices, isn’t it? 

The government has acted with alacrity to stave off the situation by postponing its resolution. At some point in the future, they will have to grapple with the problem and find an answer. 

While it is true that to move towards a less-cash society we need incentives, it is also true that banks must get compensated for the facilities and convenience that they provide. The convenience is two-way: it is convenient for the consumer not to carry cash, and it is suitable for the bunk not to get into the hassle of receiving money, counting it, safeguarding, and then depositing it in the bank. A fair point would be to split the cost between the consumer and the customer. And once competition intensifies to provide such card facilities, the charges would also drop down. Maybe banks will allow advertising on their cards! 

We must let market forces to dictate prices and not run to the government for settling issues. Let the government of the day not control every event in our life.