Cuba's Official Gazette publishes new regulations for economic actors

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 19 (ACN) The Official Gazette number 78 published Monday, with its complementary resolutions, six decree-laws and two decrees aimed at the country's non-state economic actors, as part of the actions aimed at correcting distortions and reviving the economy.

The new legal provisions will enter into force in 30 days and are Decree-Laws 88 “On micro, small and medium-sized enterprises” (MSMEs), 89 “On non-agricultural cooperatives” (CNA), 90 “On the exercise of self-employment” (TCP) and 91 “On contraventions in these three modalities”.

There are also Decree-Laws 92 “On the special social security regime for self-employed workers, members of CNAs and private MSMEs and the owners of local development projects”, and 93 Modifying Law 113 “On the tax system”, all issued by the Council of State.

In turn, the Official Gazette publishes the Decrees of the Council of Ministers 107 “On the activities not authorized to be carried out by micro, small and medium private enterprises, non-agricultural cooperatives and self-employed workers”, and 108 “On the creation of the National Institute of Non-State Economic Actors, to be headed by Mercedes Lopez Acea.

Its creation was announced before the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) last July by Manuel Marrero Cruz, member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister of the Republic, when he updated the Government's projections for correcting distortions and boosting the economy in 2024, with the incorporation of other actions.

At a press conference today in Havana, the president of the new institute and senior officials of the main agencies involved in these forms of management gave details of the importance and necessity of such provisions.

These regulations, aimed at ordering the actions of non-state actors and making them become true complements of the Cuban economy, are not the only ones that apply to them, nor were they conceived now, because since 2021, when the first ones were approved, it was decided to update them every two years.
This was said at the press conference given by Lopez Acea and by Johana Odriozola Guitart, deputy minister of economy and planning; first deputy ministers Maritza Cruz Garcia, of finances and prices, and Yosvany Pupo Otero, of domestic trade, and by Carmen Rosa Lopez Rodriguez, director of non-state employment of the ministry of labor and social security.

They explained that the six decree-laws, the two decrees and the complementary resolutions are the result of an extensive process of consultations and analysis at all levels, initiated in 2023, with the provincial governments and representatives of those and other agencies and MSMEs, which led to several versions until their recent approval by the country's leadership.

According to the president of the institute, they are a response to distortions or gaps, largely caused by the lack of control, they mark the organization of the non-state activity, in addition to underlining that all the modalities of economic actors are maintained.

In other words, she said, it is a matter of these figures acting within a legal framework, contributing to the treasury and to the welfare not only of themselves but also of society.

In his closing speech at the last ordinary session of the ANPP in July, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, first secretary of the Party's Central Committee and president of the country, pointed out that law and order must prevail if we want all forms of economic management to triumph and be strengthened.