A week ago, the Cuban government presented a plan of economic measures for 2024 that includes price increases of some public services, such as electricity.
This Wednesday, the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández, addressed the issue in the first of the Round Tables that will report on the new provisions.
According to the minister, the objective of these measures is to “incentivize energy savings” and reduce the state subsidy granted to consumers, especially those who spend the most.
“We know that in the world this is a tremendous pressure on families, who have to save energy because it is a high cost. “We also have to encourage this savings with certain measures,” advancement.
The president explained that electricity has a high cost in foreign currency for Cuba, due to the import of fuel and equipment, and that this cost is not recovered with the internal sale of energy. Therefore, the subsidy is unsustainable and affects the national economy.
Gil Fernández also argued that the increase in the electricity rate is a way to equitably distribute the load among users, since those who consume more than 500 kW per month will have to pay more and those who consume less will continue to pay the same. This prevents high consumers from harming low consumers when cuts have to be made due to lack of energy.
THE PRICE OF CURRENT WILL RISE IN CUBA FOR HIGH CONSUMERS
“When the blackout has to be put in place it is for everyone, the blackout does not discriminate who is the most consumer, the least consumer,” he said.
The head of Economy assured on Cuban TV that these measures “do not have a revenue-raising purpose, but rather seek to create more favorable conditions to encourage savings, very necessary for the economy.”
“The electricity rate is subsidized not only for the low consumers, but also for higher consumption,” he specified while describing it as “unsustainable.”
“In the end we all pay it because the subsidies are not paid by the budget as such, they are assumed by the budget, but assumed against the wealth generated by the country,” stated the Minister of Economy of Cuba.
