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Niuris Higueras badured that she is happy to know that more Cubans will have the opportunity to follow the "dream" of private initiative on the communist island after that the government announced last week that it was going to resume issuing business licenses, even for bars.
(Read: Local Items that will arrive in Cuba)
But the owner of the Atelier, one of Havana's most popular restaurants, will have to wait a little longer to realize his dream of # 39, attracting more customers and building a new cafeteria . In addition to suffering a decline in US visitors, the government now limits the number of people serving restaurants to 50 customers, and homeowners can only have one business.
"These limits have nothing to do with how trade works," she says.
(Read: Colombia seeks closer trade relations with Cuba)
Cuba has announced last week that it would resume licensing for private restaurants, boarders, taxi drivers and other activities in December, ending a 16-month freeze.
(Read : Cuban entrepreneurs in uncertainty about the new measures Trump)
But he also issued 129 pages of new regulations to limit profits and increase tax revenue. Business owners will be retroactively limited to one company and restaurants to 50 clients.In addition, pensions will have more inspections and possibly limits on the number of rooms that can be rented.
Measures are the last turning point of the crisis of the country's identity in relation to the accumulation of capital, which the government allowed
The foreign exchange income has dropped sharply since the fall in oil prices triggered the l 39; economic implosion of Venezuelan benefactor in 2015, which caused import reductions and energy allocations to state entities, delays in payments to suppliers, economic stagnation and sporadic shortages.
Private restaurants like Higueras were allowed only 12 seats in the 1990s, followed by a licensing freeze for a decade. Then the seats went up to 20, then to 50. The restaurants escaped this limit with a second license. The New Rules Ban It
Cuba's "non-state sector" is made up of a combination of small business owners, their employees and people who sell their products on the open market. It went from 157,000 in 2010 to 592,000, or 13% of the workforce.
There are approximately 2,200 private restaurants in the country and only 7,000 entrepreneurs have more than one license. A European diplomat pointed out that the good news was that Cuban leaders "have to accept small businesses, whether they like it or not, because they need tax revenues."
The bad news, he said, is that "the best solution that they could find is to add more regulations."
" These measures are more political than Its objective is to appease the most conservative elements who are worried about the expansion of the sector and inequalities "said Pavel Vidal, former Cuban exbadyst of the Central Bank and professor at Javeriana Cali University in Colombia.
In fact, the ruling Communist Party recently added a ban on the accumulation of wealth to the current property ban on its reform plan.
Paul Hare, a former British ambbadador to Cuba, described the new rules as "a little surprising but impressive about the scope and imprint of the suffocating Cuban contemporary bureaucracy. "
" The tentacles of the state of the country are spreading more and more in all aspects of self-employment. " In this context, companies often resort to the black market because of rising prices in state stores and erratic supply.In fact, the government's important promise of open wholesale outlets has not materialized.
To better track tax revenues, small businesses will now have to open special bank accounts and make
"They are just trying to make us feel go out more, "said the owner of a snack shop in a remote neighborhood of the tourist area of Havana ." If I followed the rules, I would not have a shop and Cubans would not go out. would not be able to afford a pizza, "he added, predicted that the state" unable to handle garbage collection "could not force it.] 19659002] Many of the 6,000 drivers of the "museum of the automobile on wheels" in Havana, which openly exploit Collective taxis with black fuel to offset the relatively low fares that they receive, express great anger and anxiety over the new rules.
] They will be forced to buy a minimum amount of fuel from public service stations at higher prices, pay a monthly quota of estimated profits and comply with a regulation that could limit their licenses to municipalities or provinces. This is a complete abuse. They want to control everything and, in the end, nothing changes, "said the driver of an" almendrone ", or an old American car used as a collective taxi by the Cubans.
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