THE Cebu Bankers Club (CBC) is supporting the proposed move of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to make the P20 banknote into a coin because of its tendency of wear and tear.
CBC president Neil Credo told SunStar Cebu that the move will benefit the public since coins are more durable and can last for more years in circulation than the banknotes.
“This banknote is widely used in our day-to-day business especially in retail businesses, which causes its wear and tear, unlike, coins which can last even up to 15 years in circulation,” he said.
In a statement, the BSP said the University of the Philippines conducted a total systems study on currency cycle. “One of the recommendations is the replacement of the P20 banknote with coin as it is the most used denomination for small-value transactions, causing it to be easily unfit and returned to the BSP for replacement,” the BSP said.
The BSP assured the mint will be protected with security features which will undergo a strict process of research.
“As with previous currency issuances and enhancements, the design, security features and specifications of the P20 coin will be a result of an extensive and in-depth deliberation by the BSP’s committee on currency design and enhancements,” it said.
The proposal will be submitted to the Monetary Board and will be recommended for final approval of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Rey Teves, training supervisor of a business outsource management company, agreed with the replacement because of the costs of goods and services nowadays.
“It’s a low increment of money and these days, you can’t really buy a lot with P20 anymore so it only makes sense to make it into a coin instead of paper,” he said.
On the other hand, Paul Maaghop, a software engineer, said changing the bill to a coin would represent a setback for pre-programmed machines.
“People are already familiar with the P20 paper bill and changing it into a coin will have a lot of setbacks such as food or drink dispensers, the people who created those things would have to retrieve all of their dispensers and reprogram the machines so that they can accept the new P20 coin,” he said. JOB