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A user identified as Monbay Gale reported on Saturday in the Facebook group “La Candonga Santa Clara” that a private business located at the corner of Independencia and Virtudes Street, in Santa Clara, Villa Clara, refused to accept payment via Transfermóvil from an elderly woman who only wanted to buy two eggs.
According to the account, the egg cost 110 Cuban pesos each, so the total purchase amounted to just 220 pesos.
The elderly woman did not have any cash, but she did have 650 pesos available on her bank card, a balance that the complainant confirmed by authenticating the application on her phone.
The saleswoman at the stall had agreed to accept payment by transfer, but at that moment, a man whom the complainant describes as the alleged manager of the establishment burst in and strictly prohibited any digital payments.
"Out of the blue, that guanajo comes in like a beast, standing out there in the photo with the white scarf and a loaf of bread in hand, shouting and telling them that there is no more money transfer available for anyone," wrote Monbay Gale in his post.
In light of the situation, the complainant ended up buying five eggs for the elderly woman out of his own pocket.
However, he clarified that his intention was not just to recount the episode, but to highlight the disproportion of the refusal: "I know that life is very tough and these small businesses struggle to have cash, but come on, you shouldn’t be so extreme. How can you not accept 220, which is nothing, from a poor old man and leave him without food?"
The complainant also explicitly requested that the authorities take action: "What should happen is that an inspector comes, doesn't show their badge, asks for everything they want, and when they ask to pay through Transfermóvil, this jerk goes back and tells them no, takes out their badge, and slaps them with a fine of 70,000."
The case occurs in a context where less than 10% of private businesses in Cuba effectively comply with the banking regulations, according to reports from May 2026.
Resolution 93/2023 from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, effective February 2024, requires all establishments—state-owned, private, small and medium-sized enterprises (mipymes), and self-employed workers—to enable payment gateways such as Transfermóvil or EnZona, under the threat of fines, closures, and cancellation of licenses.
The Prime Minister Manuel Marrero himself stated in 2023 that "no one can refuse" a customer paying electronically. However, resistance in practice is widespread: private businesses need cash to purchase supplies from suppliers who also do not accept transfers, and cash on hand facilitates tax evasion.
In Santiago de Cuba, commissions of up to 50% have been reported for converting transfers into cash, reflecting the liquidity shortage that the island is experiencing.
The refusal to accept digital payments is compounded by the egg supply crisis: the regime acknowledged a production decline of 43% in January 2025, and by April 2026, cartons exceeded 3,000 pesos in private markets in Holguín.
In that context, the fact that an elderly person without cash was unable to buy two eggs for 220 pesos sparked outrage on social media, with over 300 reactions to the original post.
Until September 2024, the regime had detected 26,538 deficiencies nationwide due to non-compliance with digital payment regulations, applying more than 15,000 violations totaling over 71 million pesos, and closed 58 additional businesses in that same month.
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