Price Hike of Essentials: Middle, low income people caught in the crunch
The rising prices of daily essentials, driven by travel restrictions, are making it difficult for the middle and low income people to make ends meet.
The second wave of coronavirus and the shutdown of the economy hark back to last year's trauma when businesses laid off employees, slashed salaries, or simply closed for good.
"My salary was cut by 60 percent during the shutdown last year. Our company was just getting back to its feet when the fresh restrictions were imposed," said Kafiluddin Ahmed, an accountant of a packaging company.
"I'm not against the government decision, but they must do something to control the prices. Now the pressure is from both sides. We won't survive," he said.
The Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh in its study titled Marginalised Communities in Bangladesh Dealing with Pandemic Fallouts: Findings from a Household Survey launched last week said 78.5 percent households did not recover from the hardships and 80.6 percent households cut down their food expenses.
This correspondent met Kafiluddin at the capital's Shyambazar kitchen market.
Defying the restrictions, he went there hoping to buy vegetables at a lower price.
His salary is Tk 35,000 a month and he lives with his wife, mother and two children at a two-room flat in Bongshal. He pays a monthly rent of Tk 12,000 and the utilities cost him another Tk 3,500. He has a monthly deposit scheme of Tk 2,000. His elderly mother needs medicines worth about Tk 2,000 and he spends another Tk 3,000 for baby food and commuting.
"Excepting rare occasions, our menu contains rice, lentil, vegetables, eggs, fish or chicken. It usually takes Tk 350-400 a day to buy food," said Kafiluddin, "But when the price shot up, I started spending less on medication, baby food and commuting. I had to take a loan and suspend the saving scheme after the salary cut last year. My daughters are still young, but they will start going to school next year."
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the average inflation rose to 5.47 percent in March from 5.02 percent in January this year.
In March, food inflation increased by 0.62 percentage points to 5.51 percent compared to January.
On Monday, the Department of Agriculture Marketing fixed retail prices of some essentials including oil, sugar, and dates.
Meanwhile, the price of cucumber shot up to Tk 140 a kg in retail stores. At Shyambazar wholesale market yesterday, a kg of cucumber was sold for Tk 60. Just a week ago, the price was Tk 25 in wholesale markets and Tk 40 in retail ones.
Wholesaler Mojibor Rahman said people usually shop more on Friday. Since there are restrictions, the retailers bought vegetables in bulk on Thursday, which increased the demand and prices.
Preferring to be unnamed, a wholesaler said he had to bribe police at different checkposts which also increased the cost of shipment of goods.
A day before the lockdown, police introduced "movement pass" for commuters. The cabinet division in a circular said shipping of farm products, food, and food grains will not be restricted.
"We know there is no restriction on trucks carrying food. But when we told this to the police, they asked us to open the boxes saying that we're hiding contraband goods. To avoid harassment, we gave them money," the wholesaler said.
He added that he had to bribe police at five checkposts.
A fruit seller in Karwan Bazar echoed this.
Within the span of a week, the prices of brinjal, taro, teasle gourd, bitter gourd, string bean, ladies finger, onion, pointed gourd and other essentials went up by Tk 5 to Tk 60 or above per kg.
Comments