How will consumers protect their rights without a receipt?
The main confirmation of a consumer's rights, the receipt, will be discarded. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised small business that the requirement to use cash registers would be eliminated. The respective draft law will be introduced by July 1. MK examined how consumers would protect their rights without receipts.
"If you do not receive a receipt, we will pay for your purchase" - signs like this are occasionally attached to cash registers in stores. The fine for not providing a receipt is steep - 30,000 roubles. This makes sense as the receipt provides a guarantee that the consumer will be able to return or exchange the purchase and obtain warranty service on it. Of course, consumers are eligible for these services even without a receipt, but in practice, it is almost impossible. In addition, if the security alarm is activated when exiting the store, the receipt will help prove your "innocence."
Providing a receipt and using a cash register will no longer be mandatory. Mr Putin announced the new rule at the forum of small and medium-sized businesses. The Prime Minister's statement was greeted with rapturous applause by the participants. For businesses, the requirement to have a cash register is a big hassle - apart from buying it (from 12,000 roubles a piece), they also need to register it with the tax authorities plus spend about 5,000 roubles a year in maintenance expenses. According to Government estimates, businesses in Russia spend 24 billion roubles per year to purchase cash registers and an additional 1 billion roubles on maintenance. The new rule applies to all imputed income tax payers, that is most small businesses - small retail firms, service providers, transportation, etc...
What about consumers? Will the new rule make them happy? It is expected that instead of a cash register receipt, consumers will be given a product check or at least some sort of a receipt proving the purchase of the product or service. Russian Consumers' Association lawyer Anton Nedzvetsky believes that businesses will provide consumers with a document replacing the cash register receipt. The purchase can also confirmed by a warranty receipt or a product receipt. Imagine asking for these documents at a food kiosk when buying a sausage... Mr Putin, however, did "allow" businesses to provide hand-written receipts! Printing receipts would require buying the relevant equipment and software...
What will happen, however, if the consumer is poisoned by the sausage or, for example, does not like his haircut, or his toilet is improperly installed? "A cash register receipt can serve as proof in court to receive compensation," a lawyer Andrei Prokhorov says. Not always is a judge satisfied by "some sort of a check." You can buy all kinds of stamped checks and put any figure you want in them. Imagine if you show the court a "hand-written receipt?"
"Without a cash register receipt you will not be able to prove per diem expenses," accounting consultant Yelena Anokhina adds. The Finance Ministry was against the draft law up until the last moment. As an argument they used a hypothetical scenario of an individual being injured in a taxi accident.
Without a receipt from the taxi driver, the person will not be able to receive insurance compensation. The ministry, of course, is mainly concerned about taxes. Cash registers provide accurate information on business revenues. Lifting the cash register requirement may result in massive tax evasion. Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov says that calculating the tax base will become more difficult. He said it is not the right time to lose out on tax revenue.
While granting privileges to small businesses is important, consumer rights should also be protected.