In the midst of the complex situation the country is going through and which demands extraordinary efforts in all senses, the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, insisted, while leading the most recent meeting of the Council of Ministers, on the importance of "always being at the side of the people, especially in the search for solutions to mitigate or eliminate the problems that have been accumulating".
The Prime Minister spoke of explaining in a timely manner and always listening to the concerns and proposals of the population at the meeting, which was chaired by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
As it has been in every moment of the Revolution, Marrero Cruz also emphasized the need to defend unity in all scenarios. A unity, he said, that necessarily has to be accompanied by demanding and ensuring that what is established is fulfilled, in which the main leaders of each place have a leading role, to whom "it corresponds to us, more than ever, to be the example.
"Today the fight is hard and in order to fight it we need to take a firm step, with our heads held high", he said, to be able to "advance in the solution of the problems, in improving the conditions of our population, but with the conviction that we are going to fight and we are going to win the fight".
The current context we are facing, he considered, "commits us more to advance in the implementation of the Government's projections, hence our insistence on the need to identify the distortions and negative trends that are currently manifesting themselves.
"If we do not start by identifying the things that are wrong with us, the things that are not working properly and seek solutions to them, we will stop, we will not move forward, and we will continue to do, as we have said, a little more of the same," he said.
We live in different times, he recalled, which demand more exigency and control, always defending planning. "The fact that resources are scarce, that we have so many problems does not mean that we do not have to plan and that we do not demand compliance with the plans".
Precisely, the first item of the wide and varied agenda of the meeting was dedicated to informing about the status of the implementation of the measures approved as part of the Government's projections to correct distortions and re-boost the economy during the year 2024.
Mildrey Granadillo de la Torre, First Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, explained several of the actions that were carried out between February 28 and March 22, in order to comply with the schedule.
She reminded that, as from March 1st, the updated retail fuel prices, both in cup and in foreign currency, came into effect and will be subject to revision every three months.
In addition, he commented that although the non state-owned companies that provide passenger and cargo transportation services acquire fuels for the exercise of these activities at the established wholesale prices, the expected impact on prices has not been achieved, as they have continued to increase.
Likewise, he referred that the Agreement that establishes the tariff for the population of electric energy for the residential sector was updated, which was increased, as of March, by 25% for consumers that exceed 500 kWh. This measure was conceived as a mechanism to contain demand.
During this period, it was also approved the continuity, until June 30, of the extension of tariff exemptions for the importation of food, medicines, medical supplies and cleaning products by individuals.
The First Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning valued that, in the period under analysis, attention has been focused on the projections that contribute to the macroeconomic stabilization, to the increase of foreign currency income, of the national production and to the development of the economic actors.
In this sense, the Prime Minister insisted on the need for all the organizations and local governments to clearly assume how each of the actions and projections that have been designed are implemented in their area, and to have a more active participation in this sense.
