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Fear of penalties makes tradesmen persist with one and two cent coins

While the European Commission is considering to ditch one and two euro cent coins from circulation due to circling prices, the new law on consumers’ protection has made Montenegrin tradesmen require these coins too.

Director of the Central Bank Treasury, Mr Todor Cicmil, said to Pobjeda that EC was considering the possibility for phasing out one cent and two cent coins but that there was no any official view or notice regarding that matter.

Central Bank of Montenegro has optimal amounts of denominations and coins.

“The new Law on Consumers’ Protection has changed the way we look at change”, Mr Cicmil explained.

Unlike last year, we had greater “inflow” of those denomination from banks.

“Ever since the euro was introduced in Montenegro’s payment system, Central Bank has had optimal amounts of all denominations, paper money and coins, and every bank has duly been supplied with the necessary quantity and structure of the money. That means that CB disposes of enough quantities of paper money and coins of all denominations”, says Mr Cicmil.

He points out that our citizens treat “change” differently than the EU citizens.

“In the most developed countries, the rule is that the change is returned completely, whereas here, in Montenegro, if the change is less than five cents, it’s kept by tacit approval. Such habits are difficult to change and tradesmen use it wisely”, Mr Cicmil explains.

 

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