Tax-dodging firms cost Cuba a bundle

Some Cuban companies are costing the state millions of pesos in revenue by not paying employment taxes, says an article Wednesday in Granma.
In the sort of cautionary tale that Granma uses to expose flaws in the socialist system, the Communist Party daily says that audits made in Las Tunas province last year by the National Office of Tax Administration revealed "irregularities" amounting to 2,170,400 pesos. The paper does not specify if the pesos are ordinary currency -- in which case, the tax drain would be US$81,902 -- or convertible pesos, which translate into US$2,349,109.
By law, Granma explains, employers must pay the state 37½ cents for every peso they pay their employees. Not every employer does, however.
Twelve sugar producers, 23 state-run industries, and 10 agricultural companies in Las Tunas failed to make the tax payments in 2008. So far this year, the "irregularities" add up to 900,000 pesos, the paper says. That's $33,962 in ordinary pesos, or $972,027 in convertible pesos.
"If the audits do not involve the entire [island] but only a part of it, what is the total damage to [...] the national economy as a whole?" the newspaper wonders. "It is unlikely anyone can answer that accurately."
Efforts to collect the missing money and concomitant fines have been unsatisfactory, the paper says. The defaulting companies plead insolvency and the situation ends up in a settlement between the companies and the government, "with the ensuing economic damage to the nation.".
"It is time to be more demanding," says Milaida Aguilera, deputy director of the Ministry of Finance and Prices. "If someone who commits that irregularity had to pay the fine or surcharge from his own pocket, the situation would be different. But at the end, it is [the government] that has to pay for the broken dishes."
To read the entire article, in Spanish, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.