PINAR DEL RÍO.-The numbers have plummeted and, with them, the possibility of maneuvering that municipal governments once had.
A little more than ten years after the territorial contribution for local development became an important source of financing to meet the needs of the population, and to undertake their own projects, without having to wait for resources and approvals from “above”, the Budget Law for 2025 has implied a serious cut in these funds.
Of the contribution of 1% of their income, which must be made by the state and private entities of each locality, today only one tenth reaches the accounts of the municipalities.
Thus, 90% of the Territorial Contribution for Local Development, although it bears that name, does not go (at least not directly) to the territories.
In Pinar del Río alone, this implies that, of the approximately 150 million pesos that were available until now, by 2025, an estimated 42 million will be available annually, half of which will remain in the provincial capital, which is where most of Pinar del Río's companies are located.
The remaining 20 million will be distributed among the other ten municipalities of Vueltabajo.
Calex Edilio González, coordinator of programs and objectives of the Provincial Government, explains that this means that some, such as Mantua, can only have about one million pesos.
“There are local development projects that are years and years waiting, because the amounts that are collected are insufficient,” he says.
AN IMPORTANT HELP FOR GOVERNMENTS
Having more money has not always meant that things are done well... and sometimes they are not done at all.
Examples also abound of works that were once started, and have ended up sleeping the eternal sleep, due to lack of resources or funding to complete them.
In May 2017, for example, regarding the actions for the 150th anniversary of the city of Pinar del Río, Granma referred to the recovery of the Pedro Saidén movie theater (closed for a decade), which was to become a large cultural complex that would include a piano bar, event rooms and other services, with a total capacity for more than 600 people.
Eight years later, the Saidén is still without an opening date, and the substantial resources invested in the project remain immobilized, without any use whatsoever.
However, the 1% contribution (as it is also known) has been an undoubted help for the repair and execution of works that local governments did not have the means to undertake.
In view of the 150th anniversary of the capital of Pinar del Río (2017), these funds were decisive to promote the model of the city, the restoration of the Pioneers' Palace, a bazaar for self-employed workers, the 13 de Marzo Museum, the facade of the Turcios Lima polyclinic, the El Criollito cafeteria, beauty salons, barbershops and five bio-healthy gyms.
AS A FUNCTION OF DEVELOPMENT?
In recent years, marked by a very complicated economic situation, the territorial contribution for local development has continued to be a way to meet all kinds of needs, as Yordan Ramírez, mayor of Pinar del Río, considers.
In the province, however, its use has had more impact on social actions than on economic-productive projects that promote the use of resources, endogenous potentialities and generate new income for the territories.
“An important part is used, because this account allows it, in a kind of current expenditure. The governments use it for constructive maintenance of social facilities”, acknowledges Jesús Gorgoy, director of Territorial Development in the Provincial Government.
In this way “problems that need to be solved” are solved, and that respond to real needs; but “this, in our opinion, does not generate development”, adds the official.
Of the more than 200 local development projects approved in the province in the last 15 years (some of which are no longer in operation), only 35 have been financed by the contribution account and, of these, only about 20 have had an economic-productive focus.
“Evidently, they are very few,” says Gorgoy, and warns that “it is true that there are social issues to be addressed, but what about food? That can't be achieved with socio-cultural projects. And what about construction materials? Not that either.
So why haven't more initiatives aimed at production been promoted?
For the Director of Territorial Development, there is an objective reason: “Because the money coming in is not enough”.
This is a half-truth, taking into account that, indeed, there are municipalities in which there are very few companies and, therefore, the figures captured are discreet.
But it is no less true that there are also territories that have had money in their hands and have not known what to do with it, such as Viñales, which in 2024 failed to execute more than four million pesos.
On the other hand, sometimes funds are wasted on superfluous expenses, such as the painting, just a few months ago, of the Hermanos Cruz shopping center in the city of Pinar del Río; a facility basically occupied by private mypime and a store that collects foreign currency from the Caribe chain. That is, by actors that generate enough income to assume the maintenance of the areas in which they themselves are located.
REPEATING OLD MISTAKES
Although the municipalities propose, evaluate and decide how to use their funds, and also choose the builders, this has not prevented the investment processes from recurrently dragging along old problems such as delays, bungling and planning errors.
This is the case of the mini-industry of canned fruits and vegetables that is being built in areas of the Oscar Sánchez Ozuna cooperative, in the municipality of Pinar del Río, which should have been started up in 2024, initially valued at some ten million pesos, and which had to receive more financing in 2025, because the delay in the execution schedule meant that the calculations to define its budget did not correspond to the current prices of the materials.
In this context, the reduction of the percentages that the municipalities will be able to receive, due to the contribution of the companies located in them, to the territorial development, forces them, from now on, to limit their projections.
“In our case, what we are doing, is with the money that we do not use in 2024. But, with what we are going to generate this year, we will not be able to do any work of impact”, explains Raúl Alberto Morales, mayor of Viñales.
With what had been left over, the municipality expects to complete a mini-industry for fish processing at the El Salto dam, which should have been started up last year, and another one to produce canned fruits and vegetables, and to initiate several social works.
So the real effect of the measure will be felt in all its magnitude in 2026, when instead of the six million that were collected annually, Viñales will only have a little more than two million.
“At current prices, it is very difficult to buy materials or to be able to do anything of importance,” the mayor announced.
Although the possibility of increasing these figures is in the hands of the municipalities, if the income of the entities settled in them grows and, consequently, their contribution to territorial development, it is known in advance that they will be far from the amounts they have managed so far.
Therefore, so will be the actions that may be undertaken for social works and new economic-productive projects.
However, of the latter, the Directorate of Territorial Development of the Provincial Government never agreed to explain to Granma (in spite of having requested the information and waited for it for more than 15 days) how many have been successful and how many have not, nor what money they have contributed to the municipalities, nor the problems to which they have given an answer. These are indispensable elements when it comes to draw up accounts, in an extremely difficult economic scenario for the country, in which rationality and efficiency are the order of the day.
