Cuba reauthorises private sector, but with tighter controls
AFP
Cuba on Tuesday reauthorized private businesses after a year-long freeze, but with tighter controls than before on a segment of the economy that now makes up 13 per cent of the Communist islands workforce, reports AFP from Havana.
The freeze had led to jitters among would-be entrepreneurs in Cubas budding private sector, and Tuesdays announcement brought some measure of relief.
The official daily Granma said the new, stricter measures were necessary because of numerous breaches by private entrepreneurs, such as tax evasion, under-declaring the number of people they employed and failure to pay employer contributions.
The government suspended the issuing of business licenses in August 2017 for around 30 of the islands most profitable business activities, in particular the restaurant trade, in order to review regulations.
We are not going to go backwards, nor slow down, nor allow prejudice against the non-state sector, but it is essential that people respect the law, in order to consolidate the gains, said then-president Raul Castro, who was succeeded in April by Miguel Diaz-Canel.
As a result of the new restrictions, the number of trade categories to be authorized will be reduced from 201 to 123.
No activity has been eliminated but they have been regrouped, the deputy minister for labor, Marta Feito, was quoted as saying by Granma.
On the other hand, some new categories of private entrepreneur have been introduced, including confectionary baker and renter of transportation.
Former president Raul Castro introduced reforms in 2011 to open the top-heavy, centralized economy to foreign investment and small private businesses, which have since boomed.
But Cuba remains under a United States trade embargo and state firms still account for 85 percent of the economy.
A dollar a day is roughly the average monthly wage for a government worker, but those in private enterprises can make far more.
The private sector employed more than 590,000 people by May this year, official figures showed, equivalent to 13 percent of the working population.
I think its a good thing, Eduardo Garca, a private watchmaker, said of Tuesdays announcement.
Lots of people were left on the hook with their money, hoping to get a license. They had invested a lot of money. Lots of landlords had bought properties or houses. They had the money and the goods there, and then all of a sudden they went and froze it, he said.
