Central Bank: Rounding up/down is voluntary

In a statement, the bank said that from July 1, 2017 it stopped issuing one cent coins, requiring merchants and vendors to round the final price on transactions up or down to the nearest five cents.

This means a transaction requiring a payment of $1 or $1.02 will be rounded down to $1 while transactions which require payments of $1.03 or $1.04 will be rounded up to $1.05. On the other hand, transactions which require payments of $1.06 or $1.07 will be rounded down to $1.05 and payments from $1.08 to $1.09 up to $1.10.

The Central Bank says that when the one cent coin is no longer accepted as legal tender, regulations will be introduced to enforce rounding. In the meantime, the bank is asking vendors and consumers to accept the rounding of final payments in a consistent and transparent manner.

It says that vendors and merchants should indicate that rounding is in effect through signs in the store and get the agreement of the consumer before proceeding with the transaction.

According to the Central Bank, if the consumer refuses rounding the vendor should provide exact change or the consumer should pay the exact amount for the goods or service or pay for them using cheques or credit or debit cards or simply refuse the transaction.

In a statement, the bank says that as long as the one cent coin remains legal tender, rounding does not apply to transactions where the customer has one cent coins and is able to pay the exact amount of the transaction, nor does it apply in cases where the customer is able to pay with non-cash methods such as cheques, debit, credit or prepaid cards.

Also exempt are cases involving individual prices of a product or service where the prices on individual items do not have to be changed or to duties, taxes or charges which are to be calculated in the exact amount before rounding.