Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – The Ministry of Commerce and Industry will start Saturday paying surprise inspection visits to supermarkets and grocery stores to ensure they return coin change to customers, Al-Madinah newspaper reported. Businesses will no longer be allowed to round up halalas and will be required to return the exact change to customers. The ministry had announced earlier that it would launch a campaign called “Here's your change” seeking to raise customers' awareness about the right to ask for coin change. Inspectors will impose fines on businesses that fail to comply with the ministry's new rules.
The ministry worked with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) to ensure that banks all over the Kingdom have enough quantities of coins. Banks that fail to provide coins will be fined by SAMA, which confirmed earlier that it supplied banks with sufficient quantities of coins. “Here's your change” campaign has been covered by visual and written media in order to ensure that all businesses are aware of it. The campaign came in response to practices adopted by many supermarkets and grocery stores where customers are given something worth the value of the change owed to them such as a stick of gum, tissues or bottled water.
