APRIL 12, 1999

Cuban Seminary Charged In Dollars By State Gas Company

HAVANA (CWNews.com) - Starting this month, the state-owned gas company in Cuba will require that San Basil's Catholic Seminary in the city of Santiago pay its natural gas bill in US dollars, an unusual hardship in the Communist country that has been under a US embargo for 36 years.

Without any previous warning, the company billed the seminary in dollars, raising the gas cost to the seminary more than tenfold. Until now, the seminary, one of two in Cuba that forms future priests, consumed 600 lbs. of gas per month. But after the increase, the school's administration brought the consumption down to 200 lbs. per month, since each 100 lbs. costs US$40 as compared to the 11 pesos -- a little more than one dollar -- paid by the rest of the population in Santiago.

The increase in the gas bill follows the decision of the state bakery to stop selling bread to the seminary.

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