Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

Price hike: Poor’s crisis, middle class’s plight

Published : Tuesday, 1 March, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1071
Chandon Mondal
Trading Corporation of Bangladesh's (TCB) goods sales truck is leaving. People are running behind the truck. Some of them are hanging on the back of the truck. Another TCB truck is being fought over a bottle of oil. The salesman can't decide who to hand over to. Once he wants to give it to one, once again he is trying to give it to another.

The news and social media of the last few days are full of scenes of the urban poor rushing around the TCB truck selling goods at low prices. The line of buyers behind TCB's trucks is getting longer and longer. The number of buyers is increasing. Although it started selling in the morning, all the products are being sold by 12 pm. Even then the line of buyers does not end. But in a country with a per capita income of 2,591 US dollars, such a scenario is uncomfortable.
 
Such scenes are rare in normal conditions except in drought, flood, or any kind of disaster situation. On the contrary, such incidents raise many questions in the minds of the people making people panic. Increasing the number of buyers and running behind the car is not a good sign. The customer queue may be longer. But hanging out until the goods are available or craving for the car as soon as the car arrives, rushing to the car, quickly running out of goods indicates economic woes.

From this, it is understood that even though various stories of income and development have been told, ordinary citizens are not good. Although the story of hollow development is propagated by statistically showing the ascendancy of development indicators, the common man can hardly be a part of it.
 
Pulses, oil, and sugar prices have risen sharply in recent times. On the other hand, the price of rice is high in the market now. The prices of soap, toothpaste, cosmetics, tissues, and other essential commodities have gone up. After the increase in the price of diesel, the transport fare has increased by 30% to 40%. Although not increased last year due to COVID-19, homeowners have increased rent this year.
In some cases, the price of school-college salaries and notebooks and pens is also increasing. There are four major sources of spending for the common man's domestic life: purchase of food and household items, rent and service bills, education of children, and transportation.

In these four sectors of the country, the prices of goods and services have gone up at the same time. Meanwhile, the process of increasing the prices of gas, electricity, and water is also underway.  It is similar to adding insult to the injury.
 
Over the past decade, prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed. It has increased step by step two to two and a half times. The victims are people of limited income including farmers, workers, employees, and professionals.

When the present government took power in 2009, the monthly bill for two gas stoves was Tk 400. After increasing it step by step, now have to pay Tk 975 for those two stoves. It has been proposed to increase the price to Tk 2100.

Similarly, a decade ago, the price of diesel was Tk 44 per liter; that diesel now has to be bought for Tk 60. The price of electricity was Tk 3.8 per unit, now it is Tk 6.13. In other words, the price of electricity has increased by 90 percent at the consumer level. If an average household consumes an average of 300 units of electricity per month, it will cost a thousand taka more in ten years.
 
Bangladesh is a land of canals, beels, rivers, and water. But that water is being sold at a high price. WASA used to supply water at the rate of Tk 5.75 per unit in 2006; by the year 2021, the price of that water has been Tk 15.16. It has been proposed to increase the water bill by 20% again.

A comparative analysis of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh's (TCB) market price list for January 7, 2019, and market price list for February 10, 2022, shows that prices of coarse rice rose by 15%, coarse lentils by 8%, open soybean oil by 54%, sugar by 49% and flour by 21%. In the last two years, chicken meat has increased by Tk 60 and beef by Tk 100 per kg. Consumer rights organization Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) has analyzed the prices of 16 vegetables, showing that the prices of vegetables have increased by an average of 10% in 2020. The upward line of the product is fairly awful.
 
The pockets of the common man are rapidly being emptied to handle this market situation. People are struggling to calculate income and expenditure. But statements of indicative and visible improvement say different things. The country is now working on mega development projects.

Accounts and numbers of flyovers, metro rails, bridges, and public-private buildings are increasing. Expatriate income and export income have increased along with per capita income in the country. But in public life, especially in the market, why not have a positive impact? If the economy improves, there will be relief in public life. This is where the statistical manipulation or inconsistency lies.
 
Expenditure is more than future income to implement megaprojects of the country. Many projects are being canceled after errors are detected. But most of the budget money for the canceled project was spent till then. The second project of the same type is being taken while leaving some projects unprofitable.

As a result, on the one hand, future losses are being counted. The mega-money of the mega project is going into the hands of a handful of people. On the other hand, income is increasing but at the same time, government expenditure is also increasing.

In particular, unfair government spending has increased. Probably due to unfair expenditure the budget deficit is also increasing. The overall budget deficit in the current financial year is Tk 214,681crore. And the size of the budget is Tk 603,681crore. The government has to rely on tariffs, VAT, and loans to meet the deficit.

As a result, inflation is being created invisibly, the value of money is going down and the prices of essential commodities are going up. To tell the truth, why will the common people take the responsibility for irregularities, mismanagement, and corruption of those in charge of government institutions? How will life go on if commodity prices continue to be unreasonable?

 
Economists and analysts say the government has three tools to control the market: Firstly, Tax exemption; Secondly, Increase the sale of products in the open market and thirdly, Market supervision.
According to Dr. Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute, a non-government organization, there is no way out in the short term without a slight increase in prices.

However, savings can be made if we can reduce irregularities, corruption, and waste in the supply of fuel oil, gas, electricity, and water. He added that power generation capacity is now double the demand. A huge amount of 'capacity payment' has to be paid. There is no need for that.
 
Even though politicians talk about Bangabandhu and his dreams, no one follows his path. Leaders do not have a simple life, simple thoughts, or simple clothes like Bangabandhu. Everywhere in society, the middle class, the lower middle class, and the people who are in crisis with their livelihoods are stuck in one corner. So in the crisis of the country, in the crisis of the people, the state has to come forward. We have to arrange jobs for unemployed people.

The prices of daily commodities including rice, pulses, sugar, oil, medicines should be kept within the purchasing power. TCB's activities need to be expanded across the country. The syndicate system must be broken in the food business. The people expect the government, concerned ministries, and agencies to take effective initiatives in this regard.
 Chandan Mondal, Student of Department of Economics, Government Titumir College, Dhaka






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