THE TELEGRAPH: Elderly Cubans will no longer be entitled to state-subsidised cigarettes after President Raul Castro axed the programme in the latest austerity cuts designed to jump-start the country's sputtering economy.
Beginning next month, some 2.5 million Cubans over the age of 54 no longer will get their four packs of cigarettes as part of the country's ration programme, the government announced on Wednesday.
"The Council of Ministers has resolved to eliminate cigarettes from the rationed family basket as of September as part of the measures gradually being adopted to limit state subsidies," an official statement said.
The cigarettes "are not a primary necessity", it added.
Mr Castro last month said that communist-ruled Cuba's ration system eventually will be eliminated as he moves to modernise the island's economy. >>> | Thursday, August 26, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Government to end monthly handouts of heavily subsidised cigarettes to over-54s as part of attempts to revive economy
Cuba's more mature cigarette smokers will soon discover that economics is no respecter of borders, trade embargoes or even vices.
From next month the Cuban government will cease its monthly handouts of four packs of heavily subsidised cigarettes to around 2.5 million Cubans over the age of 54.
The measure has not been prompted by concerns for the health of the island's senior citizens. Cuban authorities describe it as another measure aimed at jump-starting the spluttering economy.
"The council of ministers has resolved to eliminate cigarettes from the rationed family basket as of September as part of the measures gradually being adopted to limit state subsidies," read an official statement. Cigarettes, it went on, "are not a primary necessity". >>> Sam Jones and agencies | Thursday, August 26, 2010
