May 19, 1997

FROM CUBA

WHAT IS SUFFOCATING THE SELF EMPLOYED WORKERS?

HAVANA, May 14, 1997 (APIC).- The governmental bureaucracy seeks to drown those who are self employed, or, in my view, the independent workers. After the emergence of the licenses to offer services, in other words, independent of the services provided by the state, the very same institution which authorized the licenses, represented by the all powerful bureaucracy, seeks to rein in all the self employed workers by a wall of regulations and taxes.

Recently, a new application, engendered by the sick bureaucracy, will demand a declaration of all income, and will be demanded from the industrious Cubans who, some because of their will, and others because of necessity, jumped at the chance to establish a small private enterprise.

The goal of this registry is to keep track of the self employed's weekly income. Whoever doesn't file it will be fined 400 pesos. Whoever doesn't keep it up to date will be fined 100 pesos. If a taxpayer holds several licenses for various services, he/she must keep a registry for each individual service, as well as those who earn income in the national currency and hard currency (dollars), must keep a separate record for each type of currency. At the end of the year, they will add up the income for each week and total the amounts by period, in other words, a total of the gross income.

A private driver, who I had hired to take me from one side of town to the other, told me: "I'm very disappointed. They are doing this to make us return our licenses, because now they want to eliminate us. Can you understand that this truck doesn't really belong to me? Even when I bought it, I can't do anything with it. If I want to sell it, I can't.

If I want to give it away, I can't. If I want to switch its motor to another car that I own, I can't. Nothing is mine. Everything is owned by the State in the end".

This gaunt man, wrinkled, worried about his fate, told me, by way of an explanation, that a liter of diesel costs him 10 pesos, a repair job costs him a thousand, plus he has to pay a man 90 pesos for keeping his records. Which means that there's a resurgence of the old bookkeeper, or accountant of old times.

For each self employed worker, there are ten inspectors. Public health, of hygiene and epidemiology, electricity, gas, housing, of the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT), of Work, of costs, of Food Services. All of them look over, control, and search the independent and legal activities.

A book vendor at Galiano street was fined 1,200 pesos for showing, for sale, in the glass case, a forbidden book, by I don't know what title. A driver, for transporting his fare to the town of Santa Cruz, was fined 1,500 pesos because it is forbidden to take fares out of the city.

The independent workers are complaining daily about the amount of fines which they are forced to pay. The granting of a license to operate transportation can be suspended or limited in relation with certain services, or within some areas, depending on supply and demand, according to Granma.

However, the self employed workers have already won the small, yet important battle of gaining a space which benefits us all. Proof of this are the pizza makers, the ice cream vendors, the dessert makers, the sandwich and hot dog makers, those who refill the disposable lighters, --- so needed because of the shortage of matches---, the shoe makers, the hairdressers. All of them, with their services and their smiles, wage a daily battle against the ferocious bureaucracy which seeks to limit their activity to a minimum. Why? Why are they bothered about any activity which involves personal independence?

Translated for CubaNet by Lourdes Arriete