CBSL must look into rates given by authorised foreign currency exchanges

Monday, 22 July 2024 00:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

When we give the money to an authorised foreign currency exchange, they have many excuses to offer lower rates

We are a small guest house; we have been operational for over seven years. Every month we collect at least a couple of hundred dollars from our guests as foreign currencies. While most of the guests have already paid via their booking platform, and many pay by LKR, we still get at least 5% of guests who pay by USD.

What I wish to highlight here is not a new problem, this has been the case for many years. I just wish to get clarity of this practice from CBSL. When we give the money to an authorised foreign currency exchange, they usually have many excuses to offer lower rates.

For example:

Very clean looking “new” $ 100 note would get Rs. 305.00
“Old” $ 100 note would get Rs. 302.00
Any smaller notes below $ 100 get Rs. 295.00
Lower notes like $ 1.00 and $ 5.00 get even lower.
A note with one small “pen mark” (nothing significant) get a lower rate. Or not get exchanged at all. (Once again, I’m not referring to any significant mark, just think of a 5mm long pen mark)
A note with a “pen dot” will get another rate.
When dirty either lower rate or no exchange.

If we take a combination of the above, they simply don’t exchange.

Problem Number 1:

Some guests prefer to use currency, we cannot stop this. Especially Russian guests use USD because their cards don’t work anymore. We find it very unprofessional to put conditions on how they should pay us. For example, we cannot tell guests not to pay us by lower currencies. We cannot reject a currency because it happens to have a dot. We cannot reject to collect money because it’s an old note. And of course we can’t reject it because it looks dirty!

We find it very unethical to say such things to guests, but I know there are hotels who refuse cash on these grounds. Just imagine the mindset of a foreign guest given this scenario.

Problem Number 2:

Perhaps there is no such problem at all. Perhaps these exchanges are exploiting us for a gain. Perhaps we are getting fooled by them. I don’t mind collecting a lower rate if this is the accepted norm. But if this is a silly to get customers exploited, I don’t appreciate that.

So, Dear CBSL, can you kindly clarify what powers they have to abruptly change rates based on the nature of the currency?

An SME