Tamil Nadu: Petrol dealers warns stoppage of digital payments over cybercrime harassment

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association (TNPDA) has written to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay seeking intervention over petrol dealers being drawn into cybercrime investigations through customers' digital transactions. The association warns that continued account freezes and detention of dealers could force fuel outlets across the State to stop accepting digital payments.

The association said when cybercrime investigations trace the transaction trail, a payment made at a petrol outlet too comes under the scrutiny, even though the dealer has no way of knowing the source or history of the customer's money.

TNPDA president K P Murali said Cyber Crime authorities send requests to banks to freeze accounts into which disputed transactions have reached. The dealers had earlier been approaching banks, submitting their explanations and getting the account released while the disputed amount remained on hold pending investigation. The issue, Murali said, has now escalated to dealers being taken to police stations for inquiry.

“Many dealers were among those who were affected. A woman petrol dealer who was taken from her house at around 5.30 am for inquiry. Her husband accompanied her and they remained at the police station until around 8 pm,” he said. Adding that, investigators could instead visit the outlet or the dealer's house and collect the required documents and transaction details.

The dealers say, they were now facing the consequences of a digital-payment system they had been encouraged to adopt. “ An outlet will handle around 200-500 digital transactions a day, and that digital payments account for more than 50% of revenue at many outlets, we don't have mechanism to establish whether a customer's money is connected to a crime,” they say.

The association said the action was causing mental agony, embarrassment and reputational damage to dealers and has sought a standard operating procedure for handling disputed digital transactions involving petrol outlets. It wants authorities to provide details of the disputed transaction and communicate with the dealer before taking coercive action.

“We have no other option but to temporarily suspend UPI, Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm and card payments at petrol outlets across Tamil Nadu if the issue is not addressed,” said Murali.