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This week in Italy will come into force the obligation for all entrepreneurs to accept payments by bank card through electronic points of sale (POS).
This obligation was originally planned to enter into force at the end of the year, but the Italian government has approached the entry into force on June 30 and the main goal is to fight tax evasion.
The new law provides for fines for businesses that refuse electronic payments. Starting on Thursday, anyone who refuses electronic payment will be subject to an administrative fine of 30 Euros, to which is added 4% of the value of the transaction for which the card payment has been refused.
To give a simple example, for a bill of 100 Euros, which is refused payment by card, the fine for the trader will be equal to 30 Euros, to which must be added 4% of 100 Euros, ie total 34 Euro.
Accepting card payments will be mandatory for virtually all entrepreneurs, including freelancers: from notaries, lawyers, engineers, surveyors, accountants, doctors, job consultants, dentists to carpenters, blacksmiths, plumbers and vendors ambulances.
However, the law creates exclusion spaces in case of technical impossibilities, mainly when POS terminals are out of use.
Consumer Protection Associations, which have supported the new law, express concern that traders may abuse this exception to avoid accepting card payments.
According to them, to encourage proper use, it would be useful to act on the costs of managing electronic money, completely eliminating commissions and costs paid by merchants.
With this measure, Italy joins other EU countries, such as Hungary or Greece, which have previously made card payment mandatory for businesses.
Such a request has been articulated in recent years in Albania by the Albanian Association of Banks. The association has demanded that businesses in Albania be forced to accept at least one alternative payment method, in addition to physical money.
Such a request was repeated again at the forum held this month, when the Banking Association noted that the Albanian government is not making sufficient efforts to reduce the use of cash in the economy.
Due to its development history, Albania is an economy with a high use of cash and a relatively weak culture in the use of alternative payment instruments.
High cash usage is strongly associated with high levels of informality and tax evasion.
Card payments make it more difficult to hide income, so most small traders do not prefer to accept payments in this form.
Another reason may be the costs associated with accepting card payments, but at this point bankers believe that increasing the use of POS would create benefits from economies of scale, reducing fixed costs for banks and consequently fees for businesses that accept payments through these terminals.
According to the Banking Association, reducing physical money in circulation and commercial transactions is a challenge and demand for a more organized, measurable, disciplined and sustainable economy.
The Association notes that card payments depend on both the cardholder and the merchant, on their willingness to respond to the buyer’s request for alternative payment methods.
Bank of Albania statistics show that at the end of 2021 the banking sector reported about 1.32 million active bank cards.
The total number of bank cards continues to be dominated by debit cards, linked to customers’ current accounts, which account for about 86% of the total.
The rest is split between credit cards and electronic money cards.
Meanwhile, the number of electronic points of sale for card payments (POS) last year reached its all-time high.
According to the Bank of Albania, banks had 13,741 POS devices active, with an increase of 13% compared to a year ago.
The addition of POS devices is an indication of a greater use of cards for automatic payments and no longer just for the needs of withdrawing or depositing physical money.
Card payments at POS terminals last year reached a record figure of ALL 34.9 billion, an increase of 37% compared to 2020.
The share of card payments at POS has also reached the highest level ever recorded, with about 11.5% of the total, from 10.2% a year earlier.
However, the figures clearly show that the vast majority of Albanians continue to use the bank card mainly for cash transactions.Monitor.al
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