‘Puwede po bang kulang ang sukli?”Pwede po bang kulang ang bayad?’

𝐹𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑤

For many consumers, the recent holidays, far from being a season of cheer and goodwill, was a time for feeling more stressed and harassed.

Already burdened by the tasks of buying gifts, putting up holiday decorations and preparing festive spreads for friends and families, consumers apparently found many retail establishments adding to the pressure by not being ready for the seasonal increase in business.

Consumers complained that stores were back to their old trick – not giving shoppers their exact change. The old excuse, “𝑂𝑘𝑎𝑦 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑜 𝑏𝑎 𝑘𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑘𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑢𝑘𝑙𝑖?”, (Is it okay that I do not give you the exact change?), was heard once again. Of course, the opposite – the shopper not paying the exact amount of his/her purchases – was not acceptable.

It may be time for the Department of Trade and Industry to do the rounds and remind commercial establishments that there is a law, Republic Act 10909, not just a simple department regulation, that prohibits “business establishments from giving insufficient or no change to consumers”.

The law was passed in 2015. Its Implementing Rules and Regulations even includes sari-sari stores in its coverage and declares that “all business establishments (including government agencies) . . . performing proprietary functions, are mandated to give exact change to consumers and are prohibited from giving other forms of change like candy in lieu of monetary change”.

This is why some retail establishments do not rely only on banks to have the coins they need to be able to give the exact change. SM malls reportedly encourage clients to save the coins they get and bring them to the stores to exchange for paper bills.

Throwing away money

Incidentally, on the subject of coins, why do many Filipinos handle those metal things disdainfully and even throw them away? It is probably one reason why retail establishments think they can get away with not having the exact change – many customers do not bother to collect the coins.

In the United States and other nations more affluent than the Philippines, even men have coin purses so they have somewhere to put the loose change they receive or will need to pay for purchases.

The cost of making coins

People do not seem to understand that their taxes pay for all those coins. And making each coin costs more than its actual value. A five centavo coin probably costs three or five times to mint – 15 or 20 centavos.

Throwing away or refusing to accept those coins is a waste of taxpayer money, including their own.

Didn’t the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas have a campaign to get people to value coins? It was reported recently that it even set up coin deposit machines.

There are many ways people can use coins, instead of throwing them away.

They can have their children or grandchildren collect them in piggy banks. When the piggy banks are full, the children can retrieve the coins and deposit the amount in a bank to start their own savings account. This will also teach them to appreciate coins. If you have not noticed, children are more disdainful of coins than adults. They throw them away just as soon as they get them.

Coins for charity

Churches will also be glad to get all the coins people do not want. With all the charitable work they do, every little amount helps and coins can often add up to some substantial amount.

So let’s have a little respect for centavos.

READ: Scammers can use even inactive credit cards