Cuba to Suspend Phone Communications with USCuba announced Friday that the direct telephone communications with the United States will be suspended from December 15 because American telephone companies have not paid the legally established tax, the daily Granma reported.Granma said the decision was adopted by the Executive Committee of the Ministers Council and will be brought into effect by the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA). According to Granma, the U.S. firms did not pay the tax of 10 percent on public services, established by a law that came into effect on October 25. Representatives of the U.S. companies explained to ETECSA that they "cannot pay without the authorization of the government." The tax was imposed a few days after the U.S. Congress authorized the Cuban funds in AT&T accounts frozen by the U.S. government since the 1960s be used to indemnify parents of three men shot down by Cuban fighter jets off the island's coast in 1996. |
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