Cuba to liberalise taxi trade

Cubans with classic American cars – or even rusty Russian sedans – are being encouraged to apply for taxi licences and set their own prices for the first time in nearly a decade as the communist government turns to the free market to improve its woeful transport system.

Under regulations published this week, Cuba is applying a larger dose of supply-and-demand to an economy that remains 90% under state control.

The move by President Raul Castro’s government also breaks with the policies of his ailing brother Fidel, who long accused private taxis – legal and otherwise - of seeking “juicy profits” and fomenting a black market for state-subsidised petrol that Cuba “had sweated and bled” to obtain.

New taxi licenses have not been approved since October 1999, and it is not clear how many new cabs will be allowed.

The measure orders officials to determine what combination of “autos, jeeps, panel trucks, microbuses, three-wheelers and motorcycles” will best meet each area’s needs.

“Without these taxis, especially in the city of Havana but also in the provinces, the country would practically grind to a halt,” said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a state-trained economist who became an anti-communist dissident and has written essays on pirate taxis.