Shops to dispense cash up to Rs.2000 through card-swipe machines from today

New Delhi: Shops from Saturday onwards will dispense cash through debit card swipe in a bid to ease the cash crunch in the economy following the government's decision to withdraw 1,000 and 500 rupee notes. In addition, no transaction charges will be charged until the 30th of December on payments made through swipe machines.  Cash up to Rs.2000 will be dispensed through swiping of debit card at shops, malls and all showrooms across the country where POS machines from any of the banks are already available. POS machines are the machines which are generally used for debit or credit card transactions. The government on Thursday had allowed dispensing cash of up to Rs 2,000 through debit card swipe at select petrol pumps. State-run news channel Doordarshan announced that 2,500 petrol pumps would dispense Rs 2,000 cash per person per day in order to end the ongoing hustle in the banks and ATMs. This service has been launched for the convenience of the customers who have not been able to withdraw money from the banks or the ATMs because of the long queues or cashless ATM Centres. Petrol pumps have been accepting old and now-defunct currency notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations and the same will continue till November 24, 2016. (With inputs from PTI)