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Oxigen Services, a non-bank payment services provider, has entered into a strategic tie-up with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IndianOil) to expand and deploy new micro-ATMs at the oil marketing major’s fuel station network across the country.
Over the next one year, Oxigen targets to deploy micro-ATMs at 10,000 IndianOil retail outlets across States, potentially yielding 8-10 million transactions and gross transaction value of $1 billion this coming year.
Speaking to BusinessLine on the tie-up, Pramod Saxena, Founder & CMD, Oxigen Service, said this is a significant deal because petrol stations generate huge amount of business and are largest single-point value creators in terms of payment acceptance.
Pilot programme
Encouraged by the success of the pilot programme launched in May last in 200 IndianOil outlets, Oxigen has now tied up with IndianOil, Saxena said.
Under the tie-up, Oxigen and IndianOil outlets will provide services of branchless banking through the micro-ATMs (basically Point of Sale machines).
Customers can avail themselves of banking services, do digital payments and recharge IndianOil's Xtrapower fleetcard account, by paying in cash or via debit card or BHIM Aadhaar Pay. They can pay for fuel and other purchases, and also withdraw cash using Aadhaar, according to Saxena.
IndianOil has over 25,000 petrol stations and are big users and holders of cash. Post-demonetisation, oil companies have been looking to digitise their operations so that cash-based transactions are minimised in majority of their locations. “Our micro-ATMs will enable IndianOil to remove lot of cash in its operations and digitise. Now that we have done the pilot, we know all the processes and expect to deploy ATMs at all the 10,000 outlets in about one year,” Saxena said.
Over the last 12 months, Oxigen Services has deployed 20,000 micro-ATMs in various industries across the country.
Eyes similar tie-ups
Talks are also on with other oil companies for similar tie-ups, Saxena said adding: “There is no exclusivity pact with IndianOil. We are free to provide our micro-ATM services with others also.”
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