Cuban authorities reported on Tuesday the extension from July 1 to December 31, 2023 of the importation without commercial character, nor limits on its value and exempt from payment of customs duties, food, medicine and toiletries.
At a press conference, Vladimir Regueiro Ale, Minister of Finance and Prices, referred to the advisability of maintaining this measure, promulgated in 2021 due to the deficit of goods and services, with the incorporation of regulations that make more flexible and extend the entry into the country of those goods.
One of the regulations is that the exemption from payment of tariffs up to 20 kilograms (which were equivalent to 200 dollars) will be extended to 50 kg (500 USD). It is also allowed to send the products as cargo, without any companion.
Food, toilets and medicines will have a limit of 20 kilograms and, in order to be exempt from customs duties, they must come separately, not mixed with other luggage. When imported by air, sea or post transit, they can weigh up to 50 kg.
The temporary authorization to import cargo above the established value of up to USD 500 will allow household appliances not present in the national market to be sent to Cuba, such as flat screen televisions from 32 to 42 inches.
Yamila Martínez Morales, general director of Customs Processes of the General Customs of the Republic, said that the provision will help to alleviate baggage congestion in airport terminals and will facilitate Customs control, by having more time for clearance.
In addition, the exemption from payment of tariffs for the first 30 USD of the value or its equivalent weight up to 3 Kg of the shipment is ratified, and the application to the excess of this of the approved tariff rate of 30%.
Dagmara Cejas Bernet, legal director of the Ministry of Public Health, stressed that, in addition to medicines, supplies may be imported, from medical equipment to accessories for bedridden or disabled people.
The Minister of Finance and Prices stressed the non-commercial nature of these shipments or imports, since the new economic actors have their regulations to import.