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FROM
CUBA
Government clamps down on the self-employed
1k3834
HAVANA, Cuba, January 7 (cubanet.sergipeconectado.com)
- 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.
Versin
original en espaol
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