From now on, you won’t need to tell shops or cafes to keep the change if you’re paying by cash – new regulations mean they can do it automatically. As of July 1, the new price-rounding rules issued by the National Bank of Ukraine in March come into force.
From now on, if the sum on a client’s check ends includes kopiykas, a cashier can round it up or down –but only if a client pays in cash and a cashier has no change, according to guidelines posted on the National Bank of Ukraine’s website.
The central bank imposed the new rules in order to ease payments, as from July 1 it has stopped issuing small 1-,2-, 5- , and 25-kopiyka coins.
“We are confident that businesses and their clients will use the rounding prices rule transparently,” Viktor Zayvenko, head of the NBU’s Money Turnover Department said during a press briefing on June 26.
“The rounding of a final price in a check during the cash payments will make the daily financial operations of Ukrainians easier. And the state will save more than Hr 90 million a year on minting kopiykas,” Zayvenko added.
The central bank will continue issuing 10- and 50-kopiyka coins, while1-, 2-,5- and 25-kopiyka coins won’t be taken out of circulation.
Zayvenko said the new rules would only apply if a seller has no small change for a client. If clients have small kopiyka coins to pay a bill, they can still pay the exact sum without rounding.
Businesses are allowed to round the final sum in a check only, Zayvenko said. The bills of clients who pay by card will not be rounded.
Zayvenko also said that businesses that take cash payments and round the prices will have to file the exact final price before and after rounding in their financial reports.
How it works
The price-rounding rules published on the NBU website, read that if the final sum in the check ends with ” 1-4 kopiykas,” an enterprise is allowed to round it down. For example, a check with a final sum of Hr233.43 will be rounded down to Hr233.40.
But if the final sum in the check ends with 5-9 kopiykas, a shop or a cafe is allowed to round it up, and the sum Hr233.59, for example, can be rounded up to Hr233.60.
All the banks in Ukraine were ordered to accept small kopiyka coins and exchange them for larger denomination coins and banknotes on client request.
Zayvenko said the central bank understands that at first entrepreneurs and the public might have problems with the new rule, and added that NBU has already asked the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine to create the explanatory mechanism for users.
The service should also stipulate the punishments for those who try to abuse the rounding policy.
See NBU infographics on price-rounding in English here.
