WILLEMSTAD - The Support Card or Social Card will no longer be accepted in supermarkets from June 19, 2021.
The supermarkets have decided this after poor payment behavior by the government and a payment system that is difficult to control, which has led to large-scale abuse. This was announced in a press release by lawyer Achim Henriquez, who represents the 16 supermarkets.
These 16 supermarkets – Goisco, Mangusa Rio Canario, Mangusa Hypermarket, Centrum Mahaai, Centrum Piscadera, Van den Tweel Zeelandia, Van den Tweel Jan Thiel, Vreugdenhil, Arco Iris, Esperamos, Esperamos Cbay, Best Buy, Alves, Cost U Less, Bon Bini and Carrefour – were approached by the government in March 2020 to help deliver food to the underprivileged and to accept the social or support card as a means of payment.
The project would only be intended to bridge the emergency caused by Covid-19 and would take only three months, Henriquez explains.
The project would also be subject to conditions. For example, the card is only intended to be used to buy products from the basic basket and cannot be used to buy 'more luxurious' items."
Checking and compliance with this is the responsibility of the cashier of the supermarket. In addition, the costs involved in using this method of payment would amount to 2 percent of each transaction, which must be paid to the company that supplies the software (Kuario, a Dutch sister company of Multi-Post). Half of those costs are borne by the government and the other half by the supermarket.
“The project has therefore been loss-making for the supermarkets from the start, as they have little or no profit margin on products from the basic basket. Although it was known from day one that this would be the case, the supermarkets have put their shoulders to the wheel in order to make a positive contribution to society.”
Henriquez argues that the project was extended after three months due to the continuing precarious socio-economic situation on the island, but that after the expiry of that extension, no new extension was made and that the financial conditions under which the project was entered into were no longer extended either.
“There is no longer a financial guarantee and no more order forms have been issued to the supermarkets for the project. The latter were given recently and retrospectively, following continued complaints from supermarkets about them. In addition, the government has now made it a habit to pay supermarkets late, causing them to run into cash flow problems. This in turn means that they cannot buy new products in time, which in turn causes logistical problems in the supply of goods to the supermarkets. This has de facto created a situation in which the supermarkets 'pre-finance' the project for the government and then must chase after the government for their money. It concerns the pre-financing of millions of guilders monthly, for which no guarantee has been given," said Henriquez on behalf of the supermarkets.
During the project, the supermarkets stated that a lot of abuse was observed. Henriquez indicates that, for example, people have been found with two cards, that others use them to buy anything but products from the basic basket and that there are discrepancies between the amount of the purchases and the amount processed in the payment system.
“The supermarkets have always fully borne this risk. It is also no longer clear how many cards are in circulation, and therefore what the total financial risk of the supermarkets is. Neither the government nor Kuario are clear about this. As has already become known in the media, the Red Cross recently ended its similar project.