Heading to your nearest fuel bunk for some hard cash may not be a good idea in Ranchi, where urban pumps are yet to adopt the micro ATM facility ruled by the RBI last week.

The capital district has around 65 petrol and diesel stations, with 40 of them within city limits. But, only six outside the capital are dispensing cash using portable point of sale (PoS) card swipe machines serviced by the SBI. The others either don't have an account with the public sector bank or are too jittery to keep hefty cash, the limit for every micro ATM being Rs 1 lakh per day.

Micro ATMs are point of sale (PoS) devices that work with minimal power and connect to central banking servers through GPRS, thereby reducing operational costs while enhancing customer convenience.

"Public sector oil companies (Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) have entered into an understanding only with the SBI that fuel bunks will get Rs 1 lakh a day to run the micro ATMs. But, most petrol and diesel stations have accounts with only private sector banks like HDFC. So, they can't extend the debit card swipe-for-cash facility to people," said a senior regional official of IOC.

The official gave two reasons why many fuel bunks were dithering to adopt micro ATMs. "One, fuel stations are required to withdraw and transport the cash at their own risk. Two, they can only dispense Rs 2,000 notes while people may demand low-value notes," he said.

The six pumps offering card swipe-for-cash facility in Ranchi are Tigga Fuel Centre in Mandar, Jhari Sakaldeep Fuel Station and Tribhuvan Petrol Pump in Tupudana, Rajhans Filling Station on Tata Road, Ayushi Petrol Pump in Ratu block and Pankaj Petrol Pump near Simliya.

Media adviser of Jharkhand Petrol Dealers' Association Pramod Kumar said pump owners had their interests to protect. "In the city, people can withdraw money from banks and ATMs. So, petrol pumps are not expressing interest in starting the facility because there will be few takers while procuring the cash will involve a lot of trouble. In semi-urban or rural areas, it is different," Kumar contended.

Sudeep Tigga of Mandar fuel station said micro ATMs currently had a lower cash dispensing limit than normal ATMs. "A person can get only Rs 2,000 a day from a PoS machine against Rs 2,500 a day from a normal ATM. If people have swiped their debit cards for cash at an ATM, they can't get any money from a micro ATM that day. With a limit of Rs 1 lakh a day, we can serve 500 people till cash is exhausted," he said.

Manohar Sahu, the first customer at Tigga Fuel Centre on Wednesday morning, said micro ATMs at petrol pumps should be made mandatory. "It will help people like me who haven't been able to queue up at banks owing to time crunch," Sahu said.

Should private sector banks launch micro ATMs too? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com