Cuba approves new suspensions of customs tax payments

These rules encourage exports and the international insertion of all economic actors in the country. The main change is that the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) recently authorized to carry out foreign trade can benefit from these regulations, explained the first vice minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro.

Speaking at the Round Table radio and TV program, he said that among the regulations and incentives is the cancellation or refund of the payment of duties when the imported goods (raw materials and inputs), both by State and non-State entities, are destined for the production of exportable items and which generate foreign currency income for the country.

Another change is the computerization process of customs procedures such as the registration of invoices, operations, and declarations, which speeds up and avoids the request for information that would already be available to the authority that would evaluate the appropriateness or not of these incentives.

The Central Bank -BCC-, will also implement new rules such as raising from two thousand to five thousand Cuban pesos the amount of cash authorized to enter and leave the country, a regulatory mechanism applied internationally to control the traffic of foreign currency and protect the national currency of each country.

BCC secretary Yamila Martínez explained that in the case of free import and export, the limit established is also five thousand in freely convertible currency or foreign currency, which must be declared through a form by the passenger himself.

She insisted that these are measures adopted at the border to the entry and exit of cash, in compliance with international standards and conventions to which Cuba is a signatory to prevent and deal with money laundering, financing of terrorism, and protecting the national currency.

Once these limits have been exceeded, a regulation is in force that establishes a permit from the BCC, which is quite expeditious since it has seven days to respond to the request for monetary export with the due verification that the funds are licit.