14ymedio, Havana, 11 March 2025 — Las Tunas continues to try to meet Havana’s expectations in terms of bancarización [banking reform], but the reality of the Island means it isn’t enough. Due to the cost of paper and the money for the salary of the bill collectors, the Unión Eléctrica (UNE) of the province tries at all costs to get customers to pay digitally. However, the lack of mobile coverage in remote areas, the inability of some customers to adapt and – although it’s not acknowledged – the energy crisis itself have stalled the process.
“At the end of 2024, eight of the 11 commercial offices in the province achieved 100% collection, in addition to the incorporation of 23,403 users by digital channels, so that 110,584, on average, now make monthly payments electronically, which represents 63.7% of total customers,” Roberto Conesa García, commercial director of the company, explains to Periódico 26.
For years, in many parts of the world, electricity service companies have been billing their customers automatically from their bank accounts without sending paper receipts, but this is difficult for the UNE. In the Cuban context, between the lack of adequate technology and distrust in banks, many prefer to continue to have a physical receipt with which they can claim any irregularity.
Mostly elderly, and some without a cell phone, the Las Tunas residents surveyed agree that “the little piece of paper” is a more effective system
Periódico 26 confirms it: not even the disappearance of the collectors who came to homes during the pandemic in 2021, when rates rose and employees had to carry more cash, made many families adopt digital channels such as Transfermóvil or EnZona. On the contrary, many began to go to the UNE offices in person to make payments.
With the physical receipt, “the accounts were clearer,” says residents of Las Tunas interviewed by the newspaper. Mostly elderly, and some without a cell phone, those surveyed agreed that “the little piece of paper” is a more effective system. “We miss the ‘little piece of paper for the electricity,’ which was put in a dedicated place at home or stuck into various nooks and crannies. It gave us physical, palpable evidence and the details of a payment that now takes many by surprise, standing in front of a counter (at the company),” adds Periódico 26, but, it says, “another era is coming.”
The media recognizes that there are “people for whom this change means an insurmountable or difficult obstacle to overcome,” but assures that there are “positive examples,” and alternatives have been created for those who cannot adapt. “We are developing the option that consists of a telephone number so that the customer, when referring to his ID [customer number], knows the consumption and the rate to be paid,” adds the manager.
In rural areas, however, the implementation of virtual payments is going at a different pace. “This initiative is already in all municipalities except Amancio, Puerto Padre and Jesús Menéndez, because they have presented deficiencies in terms of personnel prepared to ensure it, and we do not want to do it without proper support,” notes the manager.
“The service with these characteristics is provided only in urban areas”
However, he recognizes that the lack of trained personnel is not the only problem: “The electronic service is provided only in urban areas; in rural areas, due to the lack of technologies that support it – ATMs, banks and mobile phones – it is still the meter reader who collects the bill in cash.”
The same happens with people in a vulnerable situation who cannot make the payment. “There were complaints, even among our own staff, and a meter reader goes to their homes to collect,” he explains.
Both Conesa and the newspaper overlook the energy situation. The frequent power outages not only limit the use of technology, but the already diminished internet connection worsens every time there is a blackout.
The implementation of bancarización in Las Tunas is not going as well as the UNE authorities would like. In 2012, the province had the second highest rate of digital payments for electricity, with more than 53% of operations made through banking applications. Beginning In 2024, others started using digital devices to pay, which indicates a changing scenario dependent on access to technology,” underlines Periódico 26.
The reason for that stagnation, it ventures to say, could be in the way in which the company decided to face the challenge of bancarización. Unlike in the territory, where the physical voucher was eliminated by area, in other provinces the process has been more or less organic. “The ’banishment’ of the printed voucher began exclusively by those who paid digitally,” explains the media.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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