14ymedio, Havana, 15 March 2024 — This Thursday, the Communist Party newspaper published a list of 45 businesses (60% of them from the private sector) whose closure was decreed by the Government for not including the electronic method among its means of payment. The measure, announced in large headlines by the official press, sends a clear message to those who violate the “right” to electronic commerce, the golden rule – Granma says – of the bancarización [banking reform] process* decreed in August 2023.
The 3,341 “control actions” that the inspectors launched in February, says Granma, in the tone of the police, revealed that 893 entities – in particular self-employed workers and points of sale administered by the Ministry of Agriculture – “do not comply” with the provisions of Resolution 93/2023 of the Internal Trade portfolio, the road map of bancarización.
After the raid, 89 fines were applied and 75 commercial authorizations were withdrawn, the newspaper reported. Mirurgia Ramírez, director of marketing of the ministry, reported that the inspectors are directing their “priority” attention to businesses that presented deficiencies in previous inspections, in particular those that took place before bancarización was approved.
This February, the official explained, the ministry found that not all the provinces had been inspected with the same rigor. In Havana, Artemisa and Matanzas, “more control actions” have been carried out, while Cienfuegos and Holguín were left behind. It is striking that, despite this, no business