While the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve will usher in Malta’s historic changeover to the euro and the commencement of the country’s one-month dual circulation period, Malta’s bars and restaurants will not be required to give patrons change in euros until they open for business the next day.
Moreover, patrons choosing to pay in euros after midnight could very well receive their change in Malta’s legacy currency despite dual circulation rules stipulating that consumers paying for goods in Maltese liri are to be given change in euros.
The special allowance will provide an exemption for such nocturnal businesses from beginning the dual circulation requirement of accepting payments in Maltese liri and giving change in euros on precisely the stroke of midnight.
While all establishments will be legally bound to accept payment in either euros or Maltese lira after midnight, they will not be required to give change in euros until they next open for business.
Bars will, however, be legally bound to accept payment in euros as from midnight. As such, a patron paying in euros after midnight is likely to receive change in Maltese liri, unless the establishment elects, of its own free will, to equip their barkeeps with double floats.
But with New Year’s Eve being traditionally associated with festivities and alcoholic overindulgence, the prospect of bar staff dealing with two different currencies, accepting one and giving another, on what is always one of the busiest nights of the year would be something of a tall order.
Patrons, meanwhile, will also be relieved from having to deal with two different currencies, and attempting to get to grips with the new euros as well as grappling with two different currencies mingling in their pockets ? at a time when most could be forgiven for being in a somewhat muddled state of mind to say the least.
The idea, of course, is to make the changeover as easy as possible for all those concerned.
The dual circulation period, as stipulated by the National Euro Changeover Committee’s final master plan for the changeover provides for a one-month dual circulation period in which consumers will be able to pay for goods in either Maltese liri or euros, but change will always be given in euros – with the aim of taking Malta’s legacy currency slowly out of circulation.
The leisure industry is said to be requesting an additional extension of the period, given the fact that banks will not be open for business on New Year’s Day.
As such, Malta’s bars and restaurants would have to get their euro, and Maltese lira, floats from the banks on 31 December, after which the euro floats would sit inactive until New Year’s Day.
Banks are of course closed on the day so changing Maltese lira floats into euros on the day would also be impossible, but holding on to a double float until 2 January could spell out significant cash flow problems for many of Malta’s smaller bars.