CUBA NEWS
January 12, 2003

FROM CUBA
Government clamps down on the self-employed

HAVANA, Cuba, January 7 (www.cubanet.org) - The Cuban government is carrying out a campaign to clamp down on private initiative as a means of erasing "social and economic differences among the population." By strictly applying every statute and regulation in the books, a number of government agencies found more than 9,643 instances of illegal activity in the latest two months, according to a report by the National Taxation Office.

A list of the agencies involved allows a better grasp of the magnitude of the campaign: Labor and Social Security, Prices and Finance, Transportation, Public Health, Internal Commerce, Community Services, Immigration, Investigative Technology Department of the Interior Ministry, National Police, and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

The illegal activities uncovered and punished included mostly cottage industries: 1,764 instances of people preparing or selling foodstuffs, 838 offering transportation services, 768 vendors in agricultural markets, 95 renting out rooms in their homes, and 658 engaged in other industrial or commercial endeavors.

The penalties for these violations include stiff fines and in many cases confiscation of goods or productive equipment.

Many here grumble that the National Tax Office seems to be part of a concerted government effort not to issue licenses to entrepreneurs, despite that they would fulfill a need for a product or service that the government obviously cannot provide.


Versión original en español

 

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