Cuba eases 50-y-o restrictions on purchase of cars
Published:Thursday | December 19, 2013 | 4:11 PM
HAVANA (AP):
Cuba's government today announced that the restrictions placed on the purchasing of late-model cars have been lifted.
The government said that it has decided to open its automobile market and its roads to thousands of late-model cars by eliminating a special permit that sharply restricted the number of people allowed to buy vehicles from the state.
The communist government has a monopoly on the sale of imported vehicles.
It has long required any potential buyer to obtain a special card from the Transport Ministry authorising the purchase of a car.
Potential buyers have been required to prove they obtained the cash for a car through approved means like working overseas as a state-employed doctor, musician or artist.
Money from relatives abroad, a source of disposable income for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, didn't merit a card.
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