Vince Farrugia unleashes another attack over credit card charges

Retailers must have it their way on the dispute they have with banks regarding credit card charges, a fiery Vince Farrugia told the Chamber for Small and Medium enterprises annual general meeting yesterday, pointing out that Brussels is on their side on this one.

"This is an issue on which the GRTU has to have it its way, because it's not acceptable that the government is quick to impose what the European Commission says when this bears down on retailers but then drags its feet when it's something that is beneficial to them, fearing it would irk commercial banks," said the chamber's secretary general.

The issue has been brewing for a while, but retailers now have the wind blowing in their sails, after a report by the European Commission broadly supported their call, as well as that of other similar European organisations, for the charges banks levy on credit card use to be curbed.

While also calling for the removal of the government levy on such cards, the GRTU had said that last year the banks earned almost €20.97 million (Lm9 million) from commissions charged to retailers and fees levied to consumers.

These charges, which eat away at retailers' turnover by between 1.5 and five per cent, Mr Farrugia said, breach EU laws.

In a typically charged speech, Mr Farrugia gave the GRTU's members an overview of what the chamber had done in 2007. The year had started with a report which analysed the progress of SMEs during the previous year and which served as the basis for the GRTU's position throughout the year.

Based on that report, the chamber pressed for reforms that would start delivering a rate of real GDP growth of at least four per cent, because the reality is that SMEs hardly see their profits improve unless the growth reaches these levels.

"... beyond the nice words and the boasting about the economic growth, the facts show clearly that if you leave out the big players, first of which the government itself... the rest of the economy was not doing well," he said, insisting that one must not only look at overall growth but at the way the wealth was being spread around.

He also made reference to the need for the government to better control its regulatory bodies, in particular the office for fair trade, ensuring that these bodies are truly independent and not under government control because this usually means that instead of scrutinising the big fish, they waste their time crusading against the small ones.