Warnings issued over price hikes

The National Euro Changeover Committee (NECC) has issued six formal warnings since last Tuesday in a drive to take a tough stand against traders who attempt to round up prices.

When contacted, NECC executive director Alan Camilleri confirmed that the committee had issued the formal warnings after it investigated claims from consumers.

Mr Camilleri said the formal warnings had been issued to a car park, which rounded up its fees claiming that its machines did not accept small coin denominations; two village bars which increased the price of a cup of tea; two doctors who charged €5 (Lm2.15) instead of €4.66 (Lm2.00) and a pastizzerija, which rounded up the price of traditional cheese and pea cakes.

One establishment in Valletta rounded up the price of its service by €0.01, but no formal warning was issued because the management agreed to amend the price immediately.

When asked to name these traders, Mr Camilleri said the NECC had adopted a policy not to name and shame, although this did not mean that the policy would not be changed. "By way of the formal warning, we give them 10 days to reply after which we write back threatening to name and shame," he said.

The fine is set at €1,747 (Lm750) along with a further €174.70 (around Lm75) per day until the problem is solved.

Mr Camilleri said that according to a daily business survey carried out by the NECC, the number of customers paying in euro was on the increase, with the majority of retailers saying they rarely had to tender change in the Maltese currency.

In the survey carried out last Friday, 38 per cent of around 400 retailers questioned reported that customers were not paying in euro often and another 28 per cent said that very few paid in the European currency introduced on New Year's Day.

Just 16 per cent of retailers said they found it difficult to exchange Maltese lira to euro and obtain the currency at banks.

Over 92 per cent of retailers said they rarely had to give change in lira. Retailers said few customers were paying for their purchases with the exact change in Maltese currency.

Contrary to what is being reported by shoppers, retailers said they have enough euro change in their cash tills.

However, it seems that many retailers had miscalculated the amount of euros they would need.

Malta is not the only country which is facing this problem as the authorities in Cyprus, which also introduced the euro last Tuesday, are also investigating "isolated incidents of rounding up".

There are five euro observatories in Cyprus, which are tasked with looking into incidents of profiteering. The Cypriot press reported that the major complaints were related to people being given the wrong change, but also included some cases of rounding up prices.

Mr Camilleri said many of the complaints received were from people commenting that the prices of certain products had increased. But in actual fact it would emerge that they had been given the wrong change.

Mr Camilleri said the actual number of complains received was not available "because all our efforts and resources are deployed elsewhere". He said the changeover committee was keeping a watchful eye on the situations in every village and is investigating every complaint as soon as it is received.

Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said it is being envisaged that by Wednesday, all transactions in shops will be carried out in euro.

He said there did not seem to be many cases of rounding up prices and that, overall, retailers and consumers were cooperating to make the changeover as smooth as possible.

Mr Fenech said they had received reports from individual retailers that people were emptying their money-boxes at home and going to their shops with bagfuls of Maltese one-cent coins.

One woman attempted to pay a butcher in Attard for €132.77 (Lm57) worth of meat and poultry in Maltese one cent coins. The butcher told the client that he was not a bank and that she should not dump the coins on him.

Mr Fenech appealed to the public to be more considerate because retailers were also familiarising themselves with the new currency, apart from the fact that they did not have the time to count one cent coins with several other clients waiting.

"We have to be practical. Those coins can be changed until 2010 and notes until 2017 (at the Central Bank). Even the chaotic situation at banks can be avoided because people have three months to change Maltese money (at high street banks). This is a busy period for retailers," he said.

In the meantime, the results of the European Commission's Eurobarometer surveys carried out and issued on a daily basis show that every aspect of Malta's changeover process is improving with the percentage of cash payments in euro rising from 56 to 73 per cent in just one day.

According to the survey, 52 per cent of the Maltese have only euro currency in their wallets while 22 per cent have mostly euro notes and coins. Cash payments in shops in Maltese currency decreased from 38 to 22 per cent in just one day. With regard to change given in euro, the figure stood at 93 per cent of shoppers.

Meanwhile, the NECC reported that more than €83 million (Lm35.63) has been issued since the currency was formally adopted last Tuesday. The NECC said that 135,000 ATM transactions had been made, with withdrawals of €15.5 million, while 108,000 transactions were made in bank branches for a total of €68.1 million.