Cuba lifting freeze on new private tourism businesses

Under the measures announced Tuesday, Cubans will no longer be able to run more than a single business and entrepreneurs will be required to conduct all transactions through accounts in state-run banks, officials told state media. High-earning businesses will pay new taxes and entrepreneurs who put enterprises in the names of friends or relatives face permanent cancellation of business permits.

“I was hoping that they’d respect those of us who have had more than one license for a long time,” said Camilo Condis, who owns an apartment that he rents out nightly and works in a private restaurant. “This is sort of thing only leads to irregularities and corruption.”

The new rules also include measures meant to ease the struggle of doing business in Cuba, including eliminating repeated visits by inspectors from different state agencies and allowing business owners to designate an employee as manager in the event of the owner’s illness or extended travel.

One of the world’s last communist nations, Cuba has made minimal reforms in comparison with economic high-performers like China and Vietnam. The government today is cash-strapped, crippled by low productivity, theft and absenteeism and struggling to reduce the public payroll despite maintaining salaries at levels that are barely livable for many, despite free education, health, housing and subsidized food.

The number of licensed “self-employed” workers, a catch-all category including everyone from a restaurant owner to a janitor, rose from 157,351 in 2010, when Cuba began opening to more categories of private business, to 591 456 in May.

Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands more Cubans work full or part-time in private activities without a license.

Michael Weissenstein And Andrea Rodriguez, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Cuba lifting freeze on new private tourism businesses

What's Trending