Government imposes fines and forced sales on micro, small, and medium enterprises in Santa Clara.

Inspectors from the municipal government of Santa Clara, in the province of Villa Clara, have imposed fines and compelled private businesses to sell their products due to alleged price violations.

The violations were detected in all the Popular Councils of that Villa Clara district, according to a publication on the Facebook page of the Municipal Directorate of Inspectors.

"Out of the 95 visited actors, violations were detected in 87 of them, of which 49 violate Decree 30 on retail prices," they report on their social networks.

Among the measures taken by the Santa Clara inspectors were: seven fines for misinformation, 10 fines for deceiving consumers or price alteration, seven fines for not having cost sheets, one fine for withholding products, and 24 fines for applying abusive prices.

Regarding the latter, they point out that 17 out of the 24 violate what is established in Resolution 225/2024 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices and list them as follows:

*2 self-employed workers (TPCP) who sell chicken;

*3 TPCP that market sausages;

*7 TPCP that sell pasta products;

4 TPCP that market oil;

1 TPCP that sells detergent.

In Resolution 225/2024 from the Ministry of Finance and Prices, the Cuban government set the retail prices for cut chicken, edible oils (except for olive oil), powdered milk, pasta, sausages, and powdered detergent. Since its implementation at the beginning of July, they have launched control operations throughout the country to detect price violations and sanction offenders.

Fines could exceed 8,000 pesos for private businesses that fail to comply with this measure.

Specifically, in the days following its implementation, Vladimir Regueiro Ale, Minister of Finance and Prices, stated during a prime-time broadcast of the Cuban Television News that 1,079 "control actions" were carried out, during which fines or warnings were imposed on those responsible for 393 pricing violations.

In Cabaiguán, a municipality in Sancti Spíritus, during the second half of July, fines had been imposed on almost 40 small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed workers for violating the price ceilings.

From Friday, July 12 to the 29th of the same month, inspectors sanctioned 38 private businesses, imposing fines totaling over 113,000 pesos, revealed the newspaper Escambray.