HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 13 (ACN) Cuba will maintain, through the corresponding Ministries, centralized retail prices on products and services that impact directly on the life of the people, said Minister of Finance and Prices Meisi Bolaños Weiss.
Among the centralized prices are those of the regulated family basket and others related to basic services, which although they are growing are still subsidized.
She specified that another group of products will continue with the current prices due to their total subsidy, and this is the case of the diets for children, pregnant women and those suffering from chronic diseases; orthopedic shoes; optic services.
She explained that transportation, incineration and funeral services and electricity will be partially subsidized.
Regarding this last service, she insisted on the need to implement policies aimed at rationality, since the government needs almost 18 billion pesos to cover the difference between consumption and what people and state companies pay.
Marino Murillo Jorge, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and head of the Commission for the Implementation of the Guidelines, added that 4,100 tons of Cuban crude oil are used to generate electricity, which represents 40 percent of the total fuel used.
Generation costs are high and the country has been investing in more efficient technical plants; if 24 percent of generation is reached with renewable energy sources by 2030, prices could go down, and if fuel prices in the international market go down as well, he said.
Today, a kilowatt is charged at 0.09 pesos and with the Ordering Task, the price goes to 0.40," he said, "which is why the first 100 kilowatts go from nine pesos to 40, but the share of spending on electricity decreases compared to the salary paid.
Bolaños Weiss pointed out that retail prices on the island will also have the effect of currency devaluation, since they are more connected to wholesalers and receive the impact of the salary reform which increases the expenses of the entities that provide those services or produce; so there is an increase, but with a significant transfer of the real cost of wholesalers.
Similarly, the current distortion that the same products exist with different prices depending on the market in which they operate will be eliminated.
This facilitated the conditions for corruption and non-compliance with consumer rights, she said.
Regarding the forms of non-state management, she referred to the fight against prices growing beyond the designed, especially the speculative and abusive ones.
There will be administrative measures, which have already begun, and others of a regulatory nature will be implemented, without prejudice to recognizing the real increase in costs, she said.
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