Seimas votes to abandon 1 and 2 cent coins
Sixty-five MPs backed the draft law, 20 MPs voted against and 31 abstained.
Before the vote, Liberal MP Andrius Bagdonas said the 1 and 2 cent coins create a bureaucratic burden for business and the state.
“When we get change in euro cents in a shop, we do not think about how much it really costs us. The bureaucratic burden is on business, the state and the taxpayer, and 1 or 2 cent coins cannot actually buy us anything except a small plastic bag,” he said at the sitting.
Meanwhile, MP Tomas Tomilinas of Democrats For Lithuania opposed the proposal, saying that the upward rounding of prices could give an additional impetus to inflation.
“It does not seem to matter for us living in Vilnius on a normal salary. But if a person is faced with rounding up and has to pay 2 or 3 extra cents for a usual item he buys, it will be wrong – an extra boost to inflation,” he explained.