RIGA - The requirement for retailers whose annual turnover exceeds EUR 50,000 to provide customers with the possibility to pay for their purchases with bank cards will theoretically affect about 1,000 businesses, but the actual number will definitely be higher, the Finance Ministry's deputy state secretary Olga Bogdanova says in an interview with LETA.
"In fact, many companies have POS terminals at the moment, but they do not use them. The amendments will definitely impact more than 1,000 businesses. They will mostly affect small and medium-sized enterprises as large companies have no problem with this. Studies even show that most large companies would be happy if customers were not allowed to use cash, as this is a huge cost item for these companies," says Bogdanova.
The smaller the amount of cash in the economy, the harder it becomes for shadow economy to exist, explains Bogdanova. The proposed amendments will make it more costly for shadow economy players to stay in the informal sector.
Bogdanova believes that habit may be one of the reasons why retailers still avoid offering cashless payments to customers. "It is like a mobile phone - once you start using a smartphone, you do not understand how you could have lived with a push-button phone," says Bogdanova.
The amendments to the Law on Taxes and Fees have been proposed to more effectively monitor circulation of cash in the economy and promote the use of cashless transactions, they will be considered by the government and Saeima in September.
According to the amendments, in the future the State Revenue Service will receive information on all cash transactions of more than EUR 750.
The amendments also stipulate that credit institutions and service providers will have to report the Revenue Service once a year on cash transactions of their customers - private individuals - if their total amount exceeds EUR 7,000 per year.
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