The Municipal Assembly proposes forcing companies to lower their prices for their “essential” imported products
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, May 22, 2024 –Bleeding MSMEs [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises], the only entities on the Island that remain afloat in the unstable Cuban economy, seems to be the new plan of the city of Holguín to raise money. Raising taxes on companies and forcing them to sell “essential products” at the official exchange rate of one dollar for 120 pesos are among the measures that the authorities threatened to implement last week during a meeting of the municipal Assembly with a group of businesspeople, as confirmed by local sources to 14ymedio.
The possible increase in taxes, just a few months after the announcement of the end of the 10% exemption in taxes for one year for newly created private companies and for six months for converted ones, coincides with the desperation of the State to raise everything possible on the Island to oxygenate its budget. The measure puts the noose around the necks of private owners, but another threat, even worse, suggests the obligation to apply the official exchange rate of one dollar for 120 pesos for the sale of products that have been purchased at the much higher rate that holds in the informal market (between 350 and 400 to 1), the only market where they can get foreign currency to import goods.
In an interview with this newspaper, one of the MSMEs owners who attended the meeting with the authorities, and who prefers not to reveal his name, assures that the businesspeople did not sit idly by in the face of the Assembly’s proposal. “The fact that they want to raise taxes would force us to increase the price of the products, because it is something that works like a chain: the more expensive the procedures, the higher we must charge. But now they tell us to open our doors so that they can audit our prices and that we must lower them,” he explains.
The possible measures were proposed by the Holguín authorities who, like each local government, have jurisdiction over these issues in their territory
The possible measures were proposed by the Holguín authorities who, like each local government, have jurisdiction over these issues in their territory. At the moment, it