This Tuesday, Cubans witnessed new announcements linked to the large package of economic adjustments with which the Government seeks to “correct distortions.” The measures detailed in the Mesa Redonda television program include an increase in interprovincial transportation, starting March 1, which exceeds, in several cases, 180% of the current rate.
The Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, and the Vice Minister of Finance and Prices, Lourdes Rodríguez Ruiz, presented the price changes in passenger transportation that fundamentally affect buses and trains that move between provinces, as well as of maritime transportation to the Isle of Youth and air connections.
Rodríguez Dávila clarified that all rates are updated although “not in all cases the modification is transferred to the prices paid by the population” but “some prices have had to be transferred to the end customer.” The reason for the increase is that it is not possible to financially maintain the current rates “due to the amount that the budget has to contribute to be able to cover that difference.”
The cost of fuel and the costs of recovery of damaged buses require capital that “with losing fares” cannot be covered, the official acknowledged.
The cost of fuel and the costs of recovery of damaged buses require capital that “with losing fares” cannot be covered, the official acknowledged. “The budget has to allocate more than 2,000 million pesos a year to cover that difference between the price and the rate.”
The head of the branch stressed that the official will is to maintain the prices of urban, suburban, interurban, easy-to-access rural, difficult-to-access rural and boat transportation prices as they currently are, which are what move ” to the majority of the population every day to go to work, to school.
“Buses are going to continue to cost 2 pesos in Havana and 1 peso in the province,” emphasized Rodríguez Dávila, referring to urban transportation, a service greatly diminished in recent years with the loss of routes, the reduction of the vehicle fleet and the deterioration of those still circulating. “All local train fares remain the same,” he added.
However, the hardest blow comes in interprovincial bus travel. While now a passenger pays 255 pesos for a ticket from Havana to Santiago Cuba, with the new adjustments the trip will cost 717; while from the Cuban capital to Guantánamo, the easternmost province of the Island, the ticket changes from 280 to 786 pesos. In each of these cases, the increase exceeds 180% of the current rate.
“All fares remain below 1,000 pesos,” said Rodríguez Dávila, who assured that “interprovincial services do not represent even 1% of the total mass of passengers that move in our transportation services structure,” a fact which shows the crisis that the sector is experiencing.
Fares on the railway also increase. “The service without air conditioning to Santiago de Cuba, which is one of the longest sections, cost 95 pesos and now it will cost 670 pesos. Before it cost 132 pesos, the car with air conditioning from Havana to Santiago de Cuba, now would cost 820,” said the minister.
The announcements in the Round Table program were accompanied by statements that work was being done to improve the situation of passenger mobility and to “advance in development, which is what our people want.” However, during the year 2023 the transportation sector barely managed to “stop the deterioration,” considered Rodríguez Dávila.
As part of the adjustment package, an increase in the prices of fuel, electricity and gas had already been announced this Monday. In the case of the first, the price goes from 25 pesos to 132, an increase of 528%
As part of the adjustment package, an increase in the prices of fuel, electricity and gas had already been announced this Monday. In the case of the first, the price goes from 25 pesos to 132, an increase of 528%. For their part, electricity and liquefied gas will cost 25% more starting March 1, when a new rate designed, according to the Government, to “correct distortions” that the state budget has been dragging on for years becomes effective.
The increase in the price of electricity will affect those who spend more than 500 kilowatts per hour (kWh), in the case of electricity, and all those who receive gas bullets, who will pay 225 pesos, 45 more than the current 180.
These measures occur in the midst of what the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel has described as a “war economy”, but always within the system. Officials have justified these generalized increases with the same argument: the State can no longer pay everything, so those who have the greatest ability to pay must do so or, otherwise, it will fall into the pockets of everyone.
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