Surrounded by protests and social discontent, the Cuban dictatorship removed import taxes on private entrepreneurs

The Cuban regime exempted private producers from paying import taxes on inputs and raw materials until December 31. the dictatorship’s finance ministry announced this Saturday, three weeks after the protests that rocked the island.

The measure is “aimed at stimulating the production of goods and the provision of private services,” Minister Meisi Bolaños said in a resolution published in the Official Journal.

The exemption “includes products imported on consignment to be sold in the market” and inputs and raw materials for agricultural production, but will “not apply to finished products”, clarifies the directive.

The resolution is announced as private workers await approval of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) regulations. Dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel announced this week that the State Council would approve his settlement in the coming days. The authorization of SMEs is part of the economic reforms that the regime has been promising for years in the country, where the domination of state enterprises controlled by Castrism reigns.

Last February, the regime extended to more than 2,000 the activities in which self-employed workers can operate in the controlled Cuban economy.

The provision announced today was preceded by another which also exempts from taxes the unlimited importation of renewable energy-generating technologies, their spare parts.

On July 11 and 12, thousands of Cubans staged unprecedented protests in some 40 cities, overwhelmed by food shortages, power cuts, high cost of living and persecution.

The demonstrations, unprecedented on the island, were brutally repressed by the regime. Hundreds of people have been arrested and many are charged with contempt, public disorder, vandalism and the spread of the pandemic for allegedly marching without a mask. At least 59 Cubans have been prosecuted for participating in the protests, it has been officially reported.

Immediately after the protests, Diaz Canel exempted from taxes the personal importation of food and medicine from travelers arriving on the island, a measure Cubans considered insufficient.

Punishments

The administration of United States President Joe Biden yesterday announced more sanctions against the Castro regime, this time against the Revolutionary National Police (PNR) and two of its leaders, director Óscar Callejas Valcarce, and its director Assistant, Eddy Sierra. Arias, for his role in suppressing unprecedented protests.

The sanctions block any assets that Callejas, Sierra or members of the PNR may have under US jurisdiction and prohibit those in the US from trading with them, based on US Magnitsky Law.

Yesterday took place the second round of sanctions imposed by the Biden government, after last Thursday the Treasury announced measures against the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) of Cuba, Álvaro López-Miera, and an elite military unit known as “black wasps” or “black berets”.

“We hold the regime responsible,” Biden said hours later., who received this Friday a group of Americans of Cuban origin at the White House. In addition, he promised more sanctions “unless there is a drastic change in Cuba”, and anticipated among the recipients “those who commit the abuses of the regime”.

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