From our Bureau of Not-So-Private Private Enterprises with some assistance from our Bureau of Carefully Camouflaged Socialist Monopolies
Castrogonia’s “private” businesses are in for more punishment from Castro, Inc. Fearing that any success in the not-so-private “private” sphere run by “cuentapropistas” is too much success, Castro, Inc. will be imposing new crippling tariffs and regulations on the island’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in 2024.
These enterprises run by “self-employed” Cubans have always been under the thumb of Castro, Inc., and the most successful of them tend to belong to members of the oligarchy. Whether the new tariffs and controls will be applied to MSMEs that belong to these oligarchs is highly doubtful. Castro, Inc. never punishes itself. It only punishes Cuban riff-raff who dare to challenge its ubiquitous and omnipotent monopoly.
Abridged and loosely translated from Periodico Cubano
The Cuban government will increase tax pressure on private Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in 2024, with the eminent increase in tariffs on the import of finished products and with the creation of a government institute that controls them more closely.
According to the Prime Minister of Cuba, Manuel Marrero Cruz, “the tariffs for these actors are very low. They have not been raised, because we did not want them to be reflected in the prices to the population. But we are going to regulate that and encourage those who import raw materials to produce here.”
The communist leader said in the Commission for Attention to Services in the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP) that “the massive and disorderly importation of finished products has become a difficulty and does not contribute to the decrease in prices.”
Marrero Cruz assured that these updates do not seek to prohibit or go back on what has already been approved, but rather to achieve benefits for all parties involved.
However, an increase in import tariffs will lead private MSMEs to pass that cost on to the final consumer, raising the price of imported products. This is terrible news, especially considering that the domestic market is supplied mostly by importing MSMEs, since government entities have nothing to offer.
The communist government sees the participation of private MSMEs in the market as a threat to its Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) stores.
In the parliamentary meeting it was reported that the formation of MSMEs will no longer be the responsibility of the Ministry of Economy and Planning. Approval will now be the responsibility of local governments.
Said decentralization, at the municipal level, will be carried out gradually, so that local governments make decisions in accordance with the economic and social development strategy of the municipality. That is, new MSMEs will only be authorized in the sectors decided by grassroots leaders.
I just love the ignorance of communist. You tax that which you wish to destroy. The most important condition for the survival of small business is stable conditions.
This is why you fail.