I'm writing to highlight an issue which I encounter with increasing frequency when I dine at restaurants these days.

Normally, the final bill amount will be a figure to two decimal places, after the addition of service charge and the goods and services tax. A number of restaurants will then round the bill up to the nearest tenth.

I can understand such a practice if the main form of payment is cash, as we don't have one-cent coins in circulation any more and even rounding up to the nearest five cents may be a chore.

But these days, most payments are done via cards and various other electronic means. These payment modes are able to transact to two decimal places.

While the rounded-up figure may seem quite insignificant, it is wrong as a practice.

Instead of rounding the figure up, restaurants should either charge the final bill amount to the exact two decimal figures, or round the figure down to the nearest tenth, like what supermarkets do.

Lim Wee Peng