Legislation that would allow businesses to round cash transactions at Alabama businesses to the nearest five cents will be heard in the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.
The bill by State Rep. Norman Crow (R-Tuscaloosa) would authorize the rounding of the total amount of any in-person cash transaction to the nearest five cents.
Under the bill, if the final digit of the transaction amount is 1 or 2, it must be rounded down to 0. If the final digit is 3 or 4, it must be rounded up to 5. If the final digit is 6 or 7, it must be rounded down to 5. If the final digit is 8 or 9, it must be rounded up to 0.
Although pennies are still in circulation, the U.S. Mint ceased production of pennies in November.
Crow told 1819 News on Monday that the bill only applies to cash transactions.
“What this does is it puts out a uniform standard for rounding and we’re just talking about a cash transaction which protects consumers and merchants,” Crow said. “The U.S. government or the Mint decided to get rid of pennies. What’s happened is there aren’t a lot of pennies in circulation like there used to be and also the Federal Reserve is not putting pennies in the system like they were so a lot of retailers are having trouble providing exact change to their customers when their customers pay cash.”
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