Havana: Cuba is working today to maintain protection for the most vulnerable after the start of the monetary ordering process scheduled for January 1, Prensa Latina publishes.
According to Marino Murillo, head of the Commission for the Implementation and Development of the Guidelines of the Communist Party of Cuba, during the next year it will be necessary to polish the procedures to be able to subsidize those who really need it and not the products.
When intervening this Tuesday in the Roundtable program on national television, the official recalled that the state budget for 2021 plans to allocate some 30 billion pesos to maintain subsidies for goods and services, especially those for children and the sick.
The so-called Ordering Task promoted by the Cuban Government implies unifying the current exchange rates, the cessation of the circulation of the convertible peso, and a general reform of wages and prices, with the gradual elimination of excessive subsidies and undue gratuities.
The Minister of Finance and Prices, Meisi Bolaños, pointed out that although prices will rise as a consequence of the devaluation of the Cuban peso in the business sector, 46 percent of medicines will maintain their current value, that is, they will continue with subsidies.
There is protection so as not to affect the population, but the state budget will pay the difference to the producing and importing companies, added the minister.
Dr. Emilio Delgado, director of Medicines and Medical Technology of the Ministry of Public Health, pointed out that only a total of 191 drugs of the 353 sold in pharmacies will rise in prices and are those used for a short period of time.
However, the products dispensed in a controlled manner for three million 425 thousand people with conditions such as hypertension and diabetes will be protected, 23 of these medicines are imported for a value of 22 million dollars.
The monetary reform is one of the largest economic processes in the history of the country, as it cuts across all sectors and has a high impact on the population, the island’s authorities report.
Thus, from January 1, the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) will stop circulating and the Cuban peso (CUP) will remain.