MOSCOW, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Russia on Monday moved a step closer to scrapping the kopeck coin, which costs 47 times its actual value to produce, but politicians voiced concern that extending the measure to more coins could stoke inflation.
The central bank wants to stop minting one- and five-kopeck coins, arguing that they are very expensive to produce and — in a country where even a box of matches costs over 1 rouble ($0.032) — are of little practical use.
A survey by the bank found that 77 percent of the population would not mind if coins below 10 kopecks — or one tenth of a rouble — were scrapped.
"Even in the villages, where there are no roads, they use kopecks to make the floors," head of the committee Vladislav Reznik told the meeting.
However, he and his colleagues were less keen to abolish the 5 kopeck coin — which costs 69 kopecks to make — citing concerns that this could push up prices for services such as electricity or mobile phones. The committee asked the central bank to investigate that issue further.
