The Cuban regime announced this Thursday the removal of restrictions on the acquisition of vehicles by individuals and businesses, one of the 176 proposals for economic transformations presented to the Third Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP), as reported by the official Granma.
The measure includes the removal of restrictions on vehicle imports, giving tariff priority to electric vehicles, especially those that can be charged using solar energy.
The announcement is part of a package of reforms that Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz presented to the deputies gathered at the Palace of Conventions in Havana, with virtual participation from the rest of the country and Army General Raúl Castro Ruz.
Marrero Cruz described the current moment as "the most complex context the country has faced since the special period" and framed the measures under the principle of "doing what is necessary to preserve the essential."
The presented document groups together 176 proposals for transformations across 23 fundamental axes, developed from 390 received initiatives, of which the government accepted 66.7%. The Political Bureau also included 69 additional recommendations.
The package was publicly announced by Miguel Díaz-Canel on June 12, backed by the Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on June 17, and brought this Thursday to the ANPP for discussion and approval.
Among the transformations of the first axis is also the expansion of autonomy for the state business system to operate on equal terms with other economic actors, the decentralization of wholesale and retail price setting, and the elimination of key limits for small and medium-sized enterprises.
It is also proposed to eliminate the salary scale in the state enterprise system and establish a minimum wage that takes into account inflation levels, with amounts negotiated between companies and workers with union participation.
The regime also authorized private banking for the first time in decades and announced the opening to investment from Cubans living abroad, as part of the same reform package.
Cuba has a long history of restrictions on the vehicle market. In 2011, it authorized the buying and selling of used cars between individuals, and in December 2013, it eliminated the state permit required to purchase new vehicles, a measure that took effect in January 2014, although prohibitive prices kept that market out of reach for most Cubans.
The regime attributes the current crisis to the U.S. sanctions that were intensified in January 2025, which, according to Marrero Cruz, have disrupted fuel supply and sources of foreign currency income.
However, the structural deterioration of the Cuban economy is the result of decades of centralized management under the dictatorship, which the government itself acknowledges has not been able to reverse since the progress made by the VI Congress of the PCC began to fade in mid-2019.
The package this Thursday represents the most ambitious reform attempt since the so-called "update of the economic model" initiated in 2011, and it also includes a reduction of the state apparatus from 27 to between 20 and 21 ministries, including the establishment of a Ministry of Interior and Transport.
"These actions do not represent a retreat, but rather a sovereign adaptation of development instruments to the specific circumstances of the country," affirmed Marrero Cruz before the Assembly.
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