By El Toque
HAVANA TIMES – On August 19, 2024, a new list was published in the Official Gazette related to activities not authorized for micro, small, and medium private enterprises, cooperatives, and self-employed workers.
The new prohibitions cover the sectors of forestry, manufacturing, commerce, and cultural activities.
The decree prohibits forestry activities, its support services, and other forest-related activities; the extraction of wood, except for charcoal and firewood; and the fishing of species under a special protection regime, threatened or endangered species, toxic or restricted species, which are exclusively reserved for state activity.
The manufacture of specialized orthopedic footwear and the manufacture, installation, repair, and maintenance of electromedical equipment are also banned.
The decree states that the management of sewer systems or wastewater treatment facilities in settlements with populations exceeding 1,000 inhabitants is not authorized. The cleaning of septic tanks or pits is allowed only if performed with specialized and certified equipment.
The self-employed will not be allowed to engage in wholesale trade or the wholesale sale of rum, cigarettes, and cigars.
The private sector is also not permitted to convene or organize international events or conduct cultural programming activities, except when participating in the management and services of the events.
In the area of education, the regulations modified the section of the previous decree to emphasize that the establishment of academies or the issuance of course and workshop certificates is not permitted. Likewise, banned are the activities of groups, circuses or companies, orchestras, and bands, or the formation, promotion, and commercialization of catalogs of artists and other artistic specialties, all reserved to the State.
What Now?
“Close or wait for clarification” are the suggestions being repeated by private entrepreneurs in social media groups and personal chats following the publication of the regulations related to the sector.
Among the new prohibitions, the one concerning wholesale trade for the self-employed is particularly concerning, and brings questions.
“Does this include purchasing/importing and selling or is the prohibition only for one of the activities?” questioned an entrepreneur interviewed by El Toque, who preferred to remain anonymous. “Another ambiguous law that doesn’t even allow me to choose between closing, changing my economic activity, or continuing as I have been,” asks the small business owner.
Some entrepreneurs agree that both the regulations and the activities prohibited for the self-empoyed are a form of forced closure or, worse, a provocation to push them into illegal activities.
An entrepreneur from Las Tunas reacted saying, “What the Cuban economy needs is more production of goods and services, regardless of whether it’s done by the private or state sector.”
By imposing additional limitations on already weakened sectors of the economy, the decree approved by the Council of Ministers further exacerbates production capacity and adds obstacles to the possibility of supply.
An entrepreneur anonymously told El Toque that the most serious problem with the decree is not just the new prohibited activities, but the fact that the number of authorized activities was not expanded, which was expected and promised by the government.
The new restrictions add an inability to operate efficiently and diversify the economy, increase the scarcity of products and prices, and worsen the quality of life for Cubans.
The leak of the draft decree a week earlier indicated that instead of reducing prohibitions, as promised by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, the number of unauthorized activities for the Cuban non-state sector would increase.
Economist Pedro Monreal confirmed on his social networks that this is “the cornering of private activity and the market as part of state measures supposedly to ‘correct distortions and revive the economy.’”
Click here to see (in Spanish) the complete list of prohibited private activities.
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First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.
