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The Cuban regime announced this Thursday the removal of restrictions on the purchase of vehicles by individuals and companies, one of the 176 proposals for economic transformations presented at the Third Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP), as reported by the state-run Granma.
The measure includes the removal of restrictions on vehicle imports, with tariff priority for electric vehicles, especially those that can be charged with solar energy.
The announcement is part of a reform package that Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz presented to the deputies gathered at the Palace of Conventions in Havana, with telematic 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 submitted document groups 176 proposed transformations across 23 core 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, endorsed by the Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on June 17, and brought to the ANPP this Thursday for discussion and approval.
Among the transformations of the first axis is also the expansion of the autonomy of the state enterprise 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 enterprises.
It is also proposed to eliminate the wage scale in the state business 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 for investment from Cubans living abroad, as part of the same package of reforms.
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 permission required to acquire new vehicles, a measure that came into 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 intensified since January 2025, which, according to Marrero Cruz, have interrupted the supply of fuel and foreign currency income sources.
However, the structural deterioration of the Cuban economy is the result of decades of centralized management under the dictatorship, which the government itself admits has not managed to reverse since the progress made during 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 creation of a Ministry of Interior and Transport.
"These actions do not constitute a capitulation, but rather a sovereign adaptation of development instruments to the specific circumstances of the country," stated Marrero Cruz before the Assembly.
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