Reasons to round off
The retail sector has been complaining for quite a while, as customers lose a lot of time searching for 0.01 and 0.02 euro cents. On the other hand, retailers usually don’t have enough of these copper cents, as a lot of consumer hoard these coins at home.
Unizo, the organization for the SMEs, applauds the government’s “logical and obvious” decision. The organization believes consumer organizations, labour unions and employers were in favour of rounding off. Reports from the National Bank, European Central Bank, the “Prijzenobservatorium” (Price Observatory) and the “Raad van State” (Council of State) failed to bring forth any objections.
PS accepts compromise
It seemed the bill would be vetoed by the PS, despite an agreement in principle which it then denounced out of fear it would receive backlash from its supporters. These supporters fear price hikes may follow the bill.
A lot of people believed the decision would be postponed until after the elections, but that has been avoided as a compromise has convinced the PS. Retailers can only round off when it is for cash payments, but not for credit card payments, when in the original bill, that was the case.
The proposal will be evaluated over the next two years and then it will be decided whether it will be expanded to all types of payments.
