Dubai: The Central Bank of the UAE on Monday said the amount of coins available in the market as “sufficient” amid complaints from consumers about exact change following the roll-out of Value-Added Tax (VAT).
In a statement, the Central Bank said that, at the moment, there is enough availability of small denominations of the UAE dirham.
“The role of the Central Bank of the UAE is to monitor cash usage in the market and supply banks with the quantities of coins they require to address the needs of their various customers,” the statement added.
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The comments from the Central Bank come just days after the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) said that traders and retailers should round off small change and not charge customers more than 20 fils over the bill amount.
A change of 10 fils or 5 fils should be rounded off to 25 fils, ADDED said.
The issue of small denominations of the UAE currency rose from January 1 upon the implementation of VAT at a 5 per cent rate across the UAE. This saw prices going up, often to small dirham denominations.
However, consumers complained that retailers were not handing back exact change. And this led many to speculate that the Central Bank may issue smaller denominations or that retailers would have to round-up their prices.
In its statement last week, ADDED said it aimed to clarify the issue on rounding off change in order to “stop any confusion about the lack of 10 and 5 fils coins in the market.”
It elaborated that if a bill shows Dh10.05, consumers may pay up to Dh10.25, and if a bill shows Dh10.35 fils, it is fine to pay up to Dh10.50.
Upon visiting a number of large supermarket chains and banks in Dubai on Sunday, Gulf News could not find cashiers or tellers that indeed provided smaller coins than 25 fils.
The consumer protection department of the Ministry of Economy has warned traders to pay the exact change or face penalties. The department asked consumers to report any complaints they may have on the issue to its call centre by contacting 600522225.
