MEXICO CITY, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Mexican Finance Minister Arturo Herrera on Wednesday criticized a divisive bill proposed by the country’s ruling party that would force the central bank to buy foreign cash commercial banks are unable to return to the financial system. “This change would only transfer the problem commercial banks have to the central bank because the central bank would have the same problem: how to export dollars,” Herrera told Reuters in an interview in the finance ministry offices. Proponents of the bill, passed by the Senate earlier this month, argued it would help Mexicans with poor access to the financial system, such as migrant families and hospitality sector workers paid in dollars. Lawmakers in the lower house of Congress later agreed to overhaul the bill. Herrera said 99.3% of remittances arrived in Mexico through formal financial channels. “If it’s really a problem of 0.7%, then we can resolve it using other mechanisms ... and not necessarily through making changes to the Bank of Mexico’s rules,” he said. Central Bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said the bill could force the bank to absorb money from drug gangs and tarnish its name with international authorities, as well as undermining the Bank of Mexico’s autonomy. (Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Anthony Esposito; editing by Diane Craft and Dave Graham)