CBN cashless policy in trouble as filling stations suspend use of POS over new charges

Most filling stations within Abuja environs have suspended the use of Point of Sales, POS, terminals in their dealings with customers.

Their reasons are not unconnected to the new bank policy where they have to charge customers paying for their products using POS.

Following CBN’s recent directive to charge applicable taxes and duties on individual electronic transactions, filling stations now charge customers N50n per transaction as being charged by the bank.

Prior to this directive, the fee paid by merchants on the aggregate PoS transactions carried out on a particular period was never passed to customers, but with the new policy, customers would have to pay more.

However, during a trip to some of the filling stations around Abuja environs, our correspondent observed that the use of PoS terminal has been suspended by most of the fuel stations.

Some of the filling station managers explained that the use of PoS terminal was suspended due to the charges which customers were not happy paying.

They explained that customers were complaining and angry about the new development, hence the need to stop the use of PoS terminal.

A management staff at AYM Shafa, Bwari Area Council of Abuja who wished not to be named said: “We had to stop the use of POS because we now charge customers directly for each transaction which was not the case before. If you notice, customers formerly don’t pay any extra charge for POS usage but now we do and they are angry and unwilling, hence the need to stop. The problem is not from us but the policymakers.”

At Eternal filling station in Jabi area of Abuja, one of the pump attendants, who wished to be anonymous also linked the suspension of PoS to CBN’s new directive.

“We have stopped it because customers are not willing to pay the extra charge for using PoS,” the attendant who was unwilling to comment further on the matter had said