Dual pricing is 'simply for information'

Businesses will not be obliged to accept payments in euros during the dual pricing period but only as from January 2008, the National Euro Changeover Committee emphasised yesterday.

As much as possible, people should not start using the euro before it becomes the legal currency on January 1, 2008.

"The aim of dual pricing is simply to give information and education about the euro," it said.

The Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU is resisting dual pricing, saying that the system should be introduced on a voluntary basis since costs were too high and could lead to inflation.

However, the NECC said that countries like Austria and Ireland, where dual pricing had been adopted, had experienced the least problems and consumers adapted to the euro with more ease. Slovenia, where the euro will be introduced in January, has had obligatory dual pricing since March.

Moreover, research by the European Commission showed that consumers in countries where dual pricing was introduced on a voluntary basis found the change most difficult.

The GRTU representative on the NECC, Reuben Buttigieg, had voiced concern that cash registers would need to be changed since they did not support dual pricing. However, the NECC stressed that this was not the case.

Explaining the difference between dual pricing and dual circulation, it said the former meant that products are marketed in both the Maltese lira and the euro while the latter referred to the one-month period in January 2008 when both currencies will be accepted by shops. Whoever pays in Maltese lira will be given change in euro.

Together with the Central Bank, the NECC will be providing the necessary training for businessmen to become familiar with the euro's security features, while the education campaign aimed at all citizens will be intensifying closer to the changeover date.