Petrol pumps in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai face the heat over printed bills

Companyowned retail outlets of BPCL have now completely stopped issuing manual receipts PicsSameer MarkandeHeres bad news for motorists who stash their petrol bills for reimbursement Bharat Petroleum BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum HPCL have decided to do away with manual receipts and will only issue bills on thermal paper which fades after a few days This will have a direct impact on employees who prefer to ask for manual receipts that they can then store for tax benefits and reimbursement from their workplaceAlso read Petrol diesel prices to change every day from May 1Most of the companyowned petrol pumps in Mumbai Thane and Navi Mumbai have already stopped issuing manual bills and upon receiving complaints from consumers the staffers response is that they are merely following the orders from the company headquartersHPCLowned outlets will issue manual receipts if a customer insists on itFading bills are uselessA motorist at the BPCLowned petrol pump in Kharghar told this paper Until two weeks ago I have been getting both manual and automated bills but suddenly the petrol pump staff stopped issuing the manual bills The thermal bills fade after a few days but petrol reimbursements are usually done at the end of the month or quarter or even at the end of the financial year What is the use of a bill that fades before thatA petrol pump staffer when asked about the notification said We have got no official notification in hand but have been asked by the company depot manager to give such feedback to customers who insist on manual billsThe depot COCO manager Deepak Wagh said All our petrol pumps are fully automated and we have stopped issuing manual bills only automated thermal bills are issuedVehicle Identification System VIS stickers on the windshield will store information about the customers fuel consumptionHe added that they got notification through an internal mail from superior officers and a notice board has also been put up to instruct the public that only automated bills will be issued hereafter We have apprised our senior marketing officials about the issue that customers have raised and they are looking into itAlso read Mumbai Sunday closure of petrol pumps fuels debate among expertsA senior bureaucrat from the marketing department of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Delhi told midday To my knowledge there is no such notification issued by the petroleum ministry on making thermal bills compulsory Nor there is any mandate for having the bar codeRFID sticker on the windshield I will have to check with the oil companies to see if they have taken this decisionNH Nahar Chartered Accountant from Nahar amp Company confirmed that companies will not accept faded bills from employees for reimbursement Activists have also slammed the practice of pasting an RFID bar code on the windscreen of motor vehicles through which their fuel consumption pattern is recordedSmall merciesNot all is lost however At HPCL petrol pumps if a motorist insists on a manual bill the staffers have been instructed to comply And at dealerrun fuel stations whether they are tied up with HP or BP motorists can still expect the oldfashioned manual bill or at least a computer printoutA petrol pump in Mulund associated with BPCL said We issue printouts from our computer to the customer as we are aware that thermal paper print fades We are giving a valueadded service to our customers by giving them computerized bills Also we do not make it mandatory for customers to affix RFID stickers on vehicles as we do not want to force anything on our customersAt Grant Road an HPCL petrol pump dealer said We issue manual bills and do not force customers to accept the thermal billsActivistpeakAdvocate Godfrey Peminta of the Watchdog Foundation said The cash memo generated on thermal paper fades over time Under the Consumer Protection Act Sale of Goods Act or the State Value Added Tax a consumer cannot be denied a proper receiptImposing the RFID stickers on motorists to understand their consumption pattern is totally uncalled for We fear that the data gathered by such methodology will be illegally given to vehicle manufacturers at a premium he cautionedThis is an anticonsumer and unfair trade practice and we demand that it be stopped forthwith he added