Not just fuel, BPCL also delivering banking services at doorstep in AP & Telangana

• With people finding it difficult to access ATMs and visit banks, BPCL has come to their rescue by enabling its retail outlets to disburse cash

• BPCL retail outlet staff went door to door disburse cash to those in need in AP & Telangana

New Delhi: Apart from meeting people's fuel needs during the COVID lockdown, BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd) is also meeting the banking needs of the common people in rural Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. With people finding it difficult to access ATMs and visit banks, BPCL has come to their rescue by enabling its retail outlets to disburse cash of around Rs 55 lakh through Fino Payments Bank by literally going door-to-door and providing banking service. During the lockdown, the oil marketing company has been involved in ensuring supplies of petroleum products — petrol and diesel at their retail outlets and providing LPG cylinder deliveries at the doorstep.

BPCL has signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Fino Payments Bank, in which it owns 21 percent stake, for creating a digital banking and payments ecosystem at BPCL retail outlets. As per this MoU, Fino Payments Bank's services are used at BPCL retail outlets as a business correspondent. Through this facility, BPCL retail outlets are able to provide remittances, cash withdrawals, with all norms of ATMs and cash deposit services as per RBI guidelines.

500 BPCL retail outlets in rural AP, Telangana providing banking services

Of the around 1,000 BPCL retail outlets in AP & Telangana which are FINO-enabled business correspondent points, more than 500 are in rural areas. This has allowed BPCL to reach people living in rural areas.

To help people fight the pandemic amidst the lockdown, there was an increase in the volume of direct benefit transfers from the government to the Jan Dhan accounts of women and farmers. The state governments had also announced a one-time support of Rs 1,500 to each food security cardholder through their Aadhar-linked bank accounts to meet expenditure on other essential commodities.

'People in rural areas finding it difficult to visit ATMs'

"As a responsible corporate citizen, we decided to step up our efforts as the common people in the rural areas were finding it difficult to visit banks due to the lockdown, withdraw money from ATMs and transfer money to their families at other places in need of money," said Saibal Mukherji, State Head Retail (AP and Telangana) at BPCL.

"The pensioners were also finding it difficult to withdraw their pension amount. This is where BPCL came to their rescue by providing them with FINO bank digital payment facility at their doorstep," he further added.

BPCL retail staff went door to door to disburse cash

BPCL retail outlet staff went door to door disburse cash to those in need of it in addition to requesting people to visit retail outlet in the vicinity and completing their banking transactions. The retail outlet dealer in the locality with FINO business correspondent facility contacted the branch managers of nearby banks and Village Sarpanchs and helped the general public by disbursing cash. The Aadhar-enabled payment services of the FINO payment bank was the USP, since many rural communities in AP and Telangana do not have plastic money, ie debit cards, which warrant them to invariably visit banks for cash withdrawals.