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Soap, toothpaste and liquid detergent and other items will disappear from Cuba's ration card Saturday.
A new price list shows some products increasing 12-fold.
The card began in the early 1960s as a "temporary" way to give everyone equal access to goods, provide monthly food and other items at steeply subsidized prices.
"No one can survive eating only what's on their ration card," wrote blogger Yoani Sánchez. ‘‘But the very low salaries and high prices in the (open) markets mean that the end of this subsidy will be dramatic."
But Sanchez believes the end of the ration card will change Cubans, comparing it to the seeds owners give to caged birds. "Perhaps the most important change will occur in the thinking of Cubans, when they realize that the small portion of birdseed is no longer being delivered to the cage, when they begin to feel the real pressures of each one of the bars.'
