The provincial government has issued fines totaling a million pesos
14ymedio, Havana, 3 September 2024 — The price controls that took effect on July 8 have forced six privately owned businesses in Cienfuegos to close and led to the cancellation of thirty employment projects nationwide. In what it calls “forced sales,” the government is also requiring more than twenty companies to sell food products and other essential merchandise now being stored in their warehouses if they want to avoid being slapped with price controls.
According to Alexander Brito Brito, the provincial government’s Coordinator of Programs and Objectives, a total of 862 inspections were conducted, which resulted in 590 fines.
Brito did not indicate when the most recent “price control actions” had been carried out but said 630 violations of price control regulations had been uncovered. The regulations cap prices for chicken, cooking oil, powdered milk, pasta, sausages and laundry detergent. The provincial newspaper 5 de Septiembre stated that the measures, which apply only to private businesses, are intended to “provide some degree of economic relief to [Cuban] families.”
Provincial officials carried out 862 inspections and issued 590 fines
“Provide economic relief to families? What planet are these fine-levying legislators living on? They live in a bubble of manipulation. I’m going to Cienfuegos in two weeks. We’ll see how things really are and just how relieved families there are feeling,” replied one angry reader on Cubadebate, which reposted the 5 de Septiembre article on Monday.
Brito estimated that the provincial government’s actions have generated one million pesos in fines. Businesses were penalized not not only for violating this rule but also for violating Decree #30, a 2021 law that allows prices to be capped based on the needs of each jurisdiction. “We received and responded to five reports and fifty-six citizen complaints,” he is quoted as saying. “There were also