A person or a company will be able to import up to six vehicles by paying higher taxes
14ymedio, Madrid, 4 September 2024 — The activity on the networks of Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, Minister of Transport, is frantic. He posts on Facebook several times a day, either about new train journeys, the fortunes and misadventures of Regla’s boat or the repair of potholes in the roads, in a communicative style that contrasts with the usual opacity of the Cuban Government. He has spoken at length in the last month about the new rules for vehicles, but this Tuesday he returned to conventional television, in case there remained something more to say.
There was nothing new except some colorful note in his speech highlighting the savings that the new regulations will allow individuals who want to buy a vehicle abroad. According to the minister, Cubans will pay up to $30,000 less thanks to the reform. “If one vehicle has a dealer value of $10,000, the sales price to the buyer will be about $15,900. However, that same vehicle under the current price formulation rules would cost more than $50,000,” he explained.
Rodríguez Dávila said that individuals can now import vehicles at the same price as companies, in exchange for taxes paid in dollars.
“That same vehicle under the current pricing rules would cost more than 50,000 dollars”
The minister reviewed the current “pricing rules” mechanism, with a margin that “is around 350%-500%, of which 30% is the commercial margin of the marketer and the rest forms a special tax.” For companies, however, the price is the cost of acquisition or import, plus a commercial margin of up to 30%.
With the new rules, the price will be the import cost, the tariffs, the commercial margin (which drops to 20%) and a special tax that varies depending on the vehicle. The most preferred, by virtue of promoting the change of energy matrix, will be the electric ones, which are exempt – “to bring us closer to the way the world works on this issue,” although there is no infrastructure in Cuba – while the high-end ones will reach 35%.
The money collected, as had already been highlighted at the end of July in the announcement of the news, will serve to create “the necessary infrastructure in the country to meet the growth of the fleet,” stressed the minister, as well as the updating of public transport, “which is very deteriorated.” Until now, Rodríguez Dávila said, the fund has existed, but in national currency.
“This policy will allow the creation of a new fund in convertible currencies, which will be allocated to concrete projects to restore the infrastructure of our country, although the needs are in the billions,” he said.
“The Ministry will issue recommendations to suppliers so that they know which brands to import”
Individuals who want to import a car can resort to the marketers Imperexport and Cimex, but a new one is also incorporated, the mixed company MCV Comercial, which has been working on the Island since 1995 as an authorized distributor mainly of Mercedes Benz. In this sense, there is doubt about which brands the authorities will recommend importing, since Rodríguez Dávila said yesterday that there would be guidelines. “The Ministry will issue recommendations to suppliers so that they know which brands to import,” he said, and it will depend on the “optimal operating conditions in terms of the fuel they need or the condition of the roads.”
Last July, the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, said that the painful state of road infrastructure in Cuba and the low quality of fuel are capable of “melting” some of the best cars, and he also said that the entry of luxury vehicles would be controlled. “There are some cars that are coming in that are not really compatible with our society and are not necessary,” he said.
Rodríguez Dávila also mentioned the possibility of “receiving international manufacturers to associate and establish their network of services in the country,” although, in an allusion to the US embargo, “not all suppliers will jeopardize a large market for a small one in Cuba.”
Regarding the number of vehicles allowed, the minister said that a person or a company has a limit of six, increasing with the tax burden. For the second car it will be 25%; for the third, 50%; for the fourth, 75%; and for the fifth and sixth, 100%.
Rodríguez Dávila had time for other clarifications, such as the rules affecting motorcycles, the new import formulas for those who fulfill missions abroad or the transmission of ownership. In addition, he said that the vehicles of the tourism sector that have concluded their lifespans and have passed, in priority, to foreign exchange sales, are now excluded from that network and will pass, directly, to the replacement of taxis, patrol cars, state entities and “as incentives for doctors and athletes.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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