Cuba details economic reforms to boost free enterprise

For the first time, Cubans in 83 private activities will be allowed to employ people other than their relatives, and they will be able to sell their services to the state as private contractors.

Accountants, currently permitted to work only for the state, can set out on their own, keeping the books for the new businesses.

Cubans who want to rent their homes to travelers will no longer have to live on the premises and can hire staff.

Even islanders authorized to live overseas — though apparently not exiles — can take part in the economic changes by renting out the cars and homes they leave behind.

And the central bank is studying ways to grant small-business loans that are crucial to any free-market system, loans that would have been unthinkable in Cuba just weeks ago.

“The decision to loosen the rules on private employment is one of the steps the country has taken in the redesign of its economic policies to increase production levels and efficiency,’’ Granma reported, citing Economy Minister Marino Murillo Jorge and Admi Valhuerdi Cepero, a vice-minister of labor and social security.

In an acknowledgment that the Cuban economy lacks the raw materials to support many private enterprises, Valhuerdi said some activities that rely on hard-to-get items like marble, paint for cars, or soap will continue to be restricted.

Eventually, the country hopes to create a system of wholesalers, but it will take several years.

Granma is the voice of the Communist Party and one of the principal ways the government communicates plans with the people. The paper promised more details in coming days, saying that the expanded private enterprise would be “another opportunity, under the watchful eye of the state’’ to “improve the quality of life of Cubans.’’

Many will welcome the changes in a country where young people have been clamoring for more opportunities for years. But the changes will almost certainly create tension and upheaval.

Whether the reforms will work depends on the reaction of Cubans who have seen past openings fizzle, and on the cash-strapped state’s ability to draw fresh tax revenues from the new businesses.

Granma said private businesses would not only pay personal income tax, but also sales and payroll taxes — as well as contribute to social security.

A vibrant, untaxed black market exists in Cuba, offering many of the services the government hopes to legitimize.

Uva de Aragon, a Cuba specialist at Florida International University in Miami, said that those hoping to enter the legitimate market would be faced with a system that is alien to them.