After recognizingthe failure of the “economic order”, as well asthe impossibility of achieving the projected growth of 3% for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Cuban government announced a crusade against theMSMEs who import finished products.
“The massive importation, in a disorderly manner, of finished products or products ready for sale, more than the solution of a great problem for the people, has been a difficulty, which does not lead us to reduceinflation and it has not led us to diminishprices", acknowledged the prime ministerManuel Marrero Cruz.
From the rostrum of the Second Ordinary Period of Sessions of the 10th Legislature, the prime minister made abalance of the impact of MSMEs on the Cuban economy and concluded that the proliferation of “new economic actors” promoted by the regime has not led to the creation of more national wealth, nor to the creation of a significant volume of jobs.
“We have approved 72 state companies to care for them and any non-state actor, the tariffs are extremely low. Why hadn't they gotten on? Because we did not want that cost of the tariff to be reflected in the prices for the population,” said Marrero Cruz, acknowledging however that “those stimuli have not been reflected in the final price” that Cubans pay.
With this diagnosis in hand, he warned MSME navigators: “We are going to regulate that; We are going to make a group of decisions that encourage everyone who imports raw materials to produce in Cuba and discourages everyone who imports products ready for sale, especially those produced in the country.”.
Among the measures announced, it is contemplatedThe reduction “for all economic actors, 50% of the payment of tariffs for imports of raw materials and intermediate goods, with special focus on agricultural production and other foods.”
Likewise, it is expectedthe increase of “tariff rates on the import of some products ready for sale that are produced in the country, such as tobacco, cigarettes, rum, beers and other products.”
Furthermore, according to Marrero Cruz, “a differentiated financial mechanism will be established for the national production of food, in national currency and in foreign currency, based on the income generated.”
But, beyond decisions to “stimulate everyone who imports raw materials into the country,” the leader was outraged with the “exaggerated profit margins” of the “new economic actors,” to whom he promised an exhaustive audit. of their accounting books.
“That is an issue that must be resolved, because in no country in the world do people with small and medium-sized businesses become millionaires… It cannot be that you, from one day to the next, want to become rich,” said Marrero Cruz before the deputies of theNational Assembly of People's Power (ANPP).
With the profits of MSMEs in the crosshairs, the prime minister warned that they are already beginning to discover “accounting problems” and companies that declare losses to “not pay taxes”, a situation that he promised to tackle with a strong hand.
The noise is not new and has been ringing for months: the government is saying that there should be no intervention in the pricing dynamics, which threatens to intervene in this area.
“Of the more than 8,500 MSMEs that we have, the majority are marketers, that is, theythey do not create wealth in the country. If they buy finished products, it is logical that later the prices they set have to be high,” pointed out in August the president of the ANPP,Esteban Lazo Hernandez.
Cuban small and medium-sized private companies tripled the sale of goods and services in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year, according to official data.
However, at the beginning of October Marrero Cruz assured that the governmentwill review “distortions” in the emerging private sector, and that they were working on updating the list of prohibited activities.
“There will not be a step back at all with that decision, there is a consensus to move forward based on the increase of economic actors in the country. But in this updating process there will always be distortions to fix and address,” said Marrero Cruz, leaving in the air the fear that private economic activity in Cuba will once again be pilloried.
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