Pedro del Toro is an engineer in Telecommunications. He spent five years at the Universidad de Oriente studying a "hard" career. Now he has his own workshop with a lot of effort. He is passionate about assembling and disarming the pieces of electronic equipment in search of damage. Together with his friend, they put into practice "magic words" in the business: demand, customer, product, competition, profit, reliability, and the most important: quality.

This is a positive example of the application of new forms of non-state management for which the Cuban economic model is committed, which has among its directives to encourage this type of activity.

The modification of the structure of employment that this entails requires the elimination of overstaffing in all labor sectors, with which efficiency in the economic sphere must be guaranteed. In this way, extending the exercise of self-employment has gained vital importance for the province of Holguín, aimed at facilitating the process of labor reordering.

This becomes another alternative, which also contributes to increasing the supply of goods and services. But are the conditions created for personal initiative to move forward successfully?

It is a reality that at present, in a general way, the population is not prepared to undertake "a good business", since most of the interested parties do not know how to articulate it; they perform naive market studies and do not know the ways to raise their accounts.

Uncertainty about access to raw materials survives, since in some cases, the resources of the State are misappropriated, causing partial or total absence of those products.
From the conception of self-employment, the idea was to obtain resources without destabilizing those destined for the population, but reality shows that the same population has to resort to the self-employed due to the shortage generated by the hoarding of products by those who carry out the activity.

Paradoxically, illegalities have been detected among self-employed workers. Some do not exercise the authority of their license and behind a facade they hide the illegal practice of others, in search of additional profits. Also, many have helpers without authorization, which is, not legally hired, without mentioning the so-called "tricks" to evade the declaration of personal income.

To this controversy it is added that thousands of taxpayers have received their licenses, however, some have requested the withdrawal. The main causes…? The disagreement with the payment of 10 percent of monthly income and social security mandatory, in addition to the high cost of inputs and raw materials.

Other reasons for withdrawing from the activity are the lack of adequate premises for the attention of the interested parties, the absence of people prepared to offer the necessary answers to the applicants, the lack of legal and tax culture in the population, as well as the delay of the formalities.

In these situations, some activities were in moratorium, ie postponed delivery of licenses until the country will create the necessary conditions for the grant.

In light of new provisions

Apparently, the time has come to resume the development of an activity that reports, among other benefits, an increase in the quality of goods and services. New rules for the exercise of self-employment in Cuba have been published in La Gaceta Oficial Extraordinaria number 35.

These regulations, which will take effect within 150 calendar days (on December 7), include the resumption of the granting of the 27 licenses that have been limited since last year, such as house , rooms and spaces renting, gastronomic service in restaurants, private contractor and dressmaker or tailor, in addition to the incorporation of baker-confectioner  and lessor of means of transport.

Among the news highlights that self-employed may only exercise a single activity, and to request permission must submit in writing the description of the desired business and the place to be established, in addition to declaring in certain cases the source of financing, among other requirements.

According to Resolution 12 of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), as a result of the changes now add 123 authorizations, in contrast to the 201 previously existing.

However, from now on there will be no licenses for wholesale and retail of agricultural products, operator of recreation equipment, street hawker, and disc buyer / seller, since in these activities have been found facts constituting crimes. In addition, authorization to exercise more than one of these benefits in the same legal address will not be granted. After the entry into force of the rules, the self-employed will have up to 90 days to adjust their business to what was indicated, and before that date they will be trained, as well as representatives of the agencies involved in this process.

Among the good news highlights the one that empowers the owner who has hired workers and need to be absent to designate any of the employees to assume the fulfillment of his duties.

These provisions are in addition to the benefits already established for entrepreneurs, oriented towards the rights to receive a kind, professional and considerate treatment and that the tax legislation is applied in a fair and impartial manner. In the same way, the confidentiality of the information must be protected, receive free consultation services and others that facilitate the fulfillment of the obligations in the offices.

Self-employed workers are also entitled to have their complaints against the actions of the ONAT answered within 60 working days of notification of the non-compliance, promptly addressing their complaints and other proposals, in addition to receiving timely, specific and updated information and obtain benefits provided in the legislation.

Other facilities that they enjoy are, for example, those who make their annual sworn statement, on the income obtained from the previous year, and pay before February 28 have the benefit "for early payment", discounting 5% of the income. On the other hand, mothers with two or more children under the age of 17 have the right to request a discount of 50% of the monthly payments on account of the tax on personal income.

All these provisions are aimed at stimulating the exercise of the modality, to ensure the motivation of entrepreneurs and encourage the development of a quality activity that contributes to the strengthening of the national economy.

Perfect the activity: not only regulatory provisions ...However, in the face of weaknesses; it would be opportune to carry out measures in search of a better implementation.

A solution to eliminate hoarding is the definitive and generalized establishment of wholesale markets; and of course, this option should be extended to all municipalities.

To reduce illegalities, it is necessary to have greater control by tax auditors, who not only verify the payment of taxes on sworn statements and behaviors, but also the structural conditions in which the business is carried out.

Faced with the convulsive reality of the Self-Employed Worker, it would be worthwhile to design an adequate information campaign and promote training courses with the basic elements of business administration; from the diagnosis of the needs of the applicants and their occupational interests, as well as their abilities and competences to exercise certain activity.

The courses already implemented, which were attended by few citizens, provided the knowledge to those who received them and the quality of the services they provide; but how can we guarantee that everyone who applies for a license is qualified to exercise it? This detail, without doubt, affects the quality and professionalism in the provision of these utilities.

Undoubtedly, the updating of the Economic Model demands an efficient functioning of new forms of non-state management and self-employment is a timely alternative. The current changes respond to the announced process of improvement of this form of employment, aimed at correcting deficiencies and to the particular modality to continue its progress in an orderly manner. To the extent that the conditions necessary to make this service more viable exist, we will have many Pedros provoking smiles and satisfactions to the clients.