More food restrictions: Government eliminates sales of regulated products to Cubans who have been out of the country for two months

The Cuban government increases food restrictions in the country, strengthening registration and deregistration procedures for consumers.

In theofficial Gazette Published on December 5, the Ministry of Internal Trade details the new restrictions and warns that Cubans who leave the country for more than two months will not receive their food quota.

"Resolution 101/2023 of the Ministry of Domestic Trade establishes the rules for the registration of consumers and groups in the Consumer Registry, such as the granting of the sales control book for regulated food products for the population," warns the state agency. .

The Ministry of Domestic Trade imposes new measures. From now on, Cubans who travel abroad for a period of more than sixty days are deprived of their corresponding portion of rationed food, regardless of whether the trip is for work, academic, cooperation or personal reasons.

The process of deleting the passbook must be done before leaving the country. This restrictive measure comes in a context of extreme shortages of food and basic products in the country.

The current policy replaces the previous Resolution 47, specifying that for the deceased, the cancellation in the notebook must be processed within a maximum of fifteen business days after death and in cases of incarceration, within the first ten business days after serving three months of confinement.

In addition, it is detailed that before entering institutions such as nursing homes, whether temporarily or permanently, discharge management is also mandatory.

The new regulation stipulates that directors of state organizations that authorize stays abroad for extended periods must ensure that they obtain theproof of withdrawal from the book of its envoys, guarding it until they return to the Consumer Registry.

Regarding the definition of the family unit for the registry, all people registered in the same book are included, regardless of relationship, clarifying the procedures for acquiring basic products and registration in the Registry according to the geographical link with the retail establishments. .

Homeowners will be responsible for constituting the family unit in the Registry and appointing themselves as heads of the Registry. In those cases where a nucleus exceeds ten members, the division will proceed after conciliation between those involved.

It will be up to the OFICODAS to manage the separation of cores, establishing limits on the number of resulting cores according to the number of consumers involved.

The "Supply Book" has been a tool for controlling and rationing the consumption of Cubans since 1963.

It was supposed to disappear in a short time, but the communist regime has never been able to eliminate it. The passage of years has worsened the food crisis and drastically reduced the supply of notebooks, without this being accompanied by times of economic prosperity for Cubans.

The current inflation in the country especially hits the food supply. Many families do not have the resources to purchase a plate of food to put on the table and the passbook fee is not enough for them to survive.