WILLEMSTAD - The Minister of Finance, Javier Silvania is angry with the Central Bank. According to the minister, the director of the bank, Mr. Richard Doornbosch has decided to remove the one-cent coin from the payment system without consultation. The minister disagrees.
Silvania calls the decision illegal. The one-cent coin is legal tender. The bank cannot just change that without making changes to the law," said the minister. The Central Bank emphasizes that the decision was taken after consultation with various stakeholders in the community.
The minister fears that abolition threatens to increase prices. All prices are rounded to 5 or 10 cents according to the plan. He calls this undesirable now that the financial situation of many people is bad due to the consequences of the corona crisis.
The Antillean guilder is legal tender on Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Aruba has its own Central Bank and uses the Aruban florin. The other Antillean islands fall directly under the Netherlands but have the dollar as legal tender.