O’Neill: Money system is managed by Central Bank

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says the decision to remove toea coins from the system remains with the Bank of Papua New Guinea.
He told Parliament that the Central Bank managed he country’s monitory policy.
“They are responsible for managing the money system in the country so to make transactions we will still need the coin although their value has been depreciated,” he said.
He was replying to a concern raised by Nawae MP Kennedy Wenge over the use of the smaller toea coins.
O’Neill said the PNG currency had “gone down low compared to the US dollar or Australian dollar”.
“It is true that a lot of times, 3 toea, 5 toea and 1 toea are of no value when we want to purchase things in the shops,” he said.
He said “a lot of the coffee buyers put their prices of cherry at 23 toea or such prices at that level”.
“They should be considerate when they set their prices.
“In rural communities where it is difficult to be given change in return for the payment of goods and services, they must round it off to coins including 20 toea or 30 toea where it is possible to make those transactions,” he said.