‘Got Cash?’ Tunisians Grapple With New Restrictions On Cheques

Olfa Meriah stands, annoyed, earlier than a smartphone store close to the capital Tunis. How can she purchase a telephone in instalments, she wonders, when a brand new banking reform has made cut up funds practically unimaginable?

In Tunisia, the place the common month-to-month wage hovers simply round 1,000 dinars ($320), individuals have lengthy relied on post-dated cheques to make purchases by paying in increments over months.

In contrast to many different nations the place cheques are actually not often seen within the period of instantaneous on-line funds, the tradition of paying by cheque persists in Tunisia.

However as a part of banking reforms launched in February the federal government seeks to bolster the unique position of cheques as a way of rapid cost. Cheques had successfully grow to be a type of credit score usually tolerated by retailers.

In contrast to debit playing cards, bank cards are usually not extensively out there within the north African nation.

The brand new legislation formally goals at “curbing client debt” and “enhancing the enterprise local weather” in an economic system whose actual GDP development, in line with the Worldwide Financial Fund, is projected at simply 1.6 % for 2025.

However many really feel it has additionally begun disrupting family budgets and small companies.

Ridha Chkoundali, a college professor and economist, stated the brand new legislation “might be the final straw” for consumption and financial development.

He stated the measure upsets Tunisians’ customary client behaviour, with primarily the center class bearing its brunt.

“Because it got here out, I have been trying to find methods to pay for a smartphone over a number of months with out it consuming away my wage,” stated Meriah, 43. “However the brand new cheques do not permit that.”

As soon as a vital pillar of Tunisia’s financial and social stability, the center class made up round 60 % of the inhabitants earlier than the nation’s 2011 revolution.

Specialists now estimate it has fallen by greater than half to 25 %.

Leila, the proprietor of the smartphone store within the Tunis-area district of Ariana, informed AFP her gross sales have fallen by greater than half, after she began taking money solely.

“Nobody buys something anymore,” stated Leila, who did not give her final identify. “We did not perceive the legislation as a result of it is sophisticated and we do not belief it. We determined to not settle for cheques anymore.”

“Received money? Welcome. If not, I am sorry,” she summed up.

Customers are below much more stress through the present Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Tunisians have a tendency to purchase extra throughout Ramadan, stocking up on meals and sweets as households collect for collective meals earlier than and after their daytime fasting.

And as Eid al-Fitr — the vacation marking the top of Ramadan — approaches on the finish of March, looking for garments and items rises.

Many retailers had already grown reluctant to take care of cheques when the earlier finance legislation ordered harsh jail sentences for cheque kiting — the fraudulent apply of issuing cheques with non-existent funds.

Final April, judicial authorities stated they had been investigating greater than 11,000 bad-cheque circumstances.

This yr’s reform is supposed to scale back these circumstances. Primarily based on the customer’s earnings and belongings, it has launched a cap on the quantity that cheques might be written for.

It additionally permits the service provider to examine if the payer has sufficient funds upon every transaction by scanning a QR code on their cheque.

Many really feel the measure is intrusive, and the technological shift already provides a stage of complexity.

Badreddine Daboussi, who owns one in all Tunis’s oldest bookstores informed AFP the change has crippled his gross sales, including to an already waning demand for books.

“Earlier than, prospects paid with post-dated cheques, however now they cannot, and the brand new on-line instrument is sophisticated and unreliable.”

“They simply cannot purchase books anymore,” he added, noting he had even thought of closing up store.

Tunisia, a rustic of greater than 12 million individuals, has lengthy suffered sporadic shortages of primary gadgets equivalent to milk, sugar and flour.

Its nationwide debt has risen to round 80 % of GDP and inflation is at six %, in line with official figures.

Hamza Meddeb, a analysis fellow on the Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie Center East Heart in Beirut, wrote in October that President Kais Saied — who rejected IMF reforms — has engaged in “financial improvisation” with “heavy reliance on home debt”.

Chkoundali, the opposite analyst, warned of “one other recession”.

“As consumption shrinks, the already little financial development now we have may even decline,” he stated.

Unemployment is already at 16 % nationwide, in line with official figures.

Feeble consumption would assist push that determine even increased, Chkoundali defined, with employees risking important layoffs as income dwindle.