Prices of most essentials, especially vegetables, have shot up 10 to 30 per cent further after transport workers enforced the present strike and increased their fees in carrying goods to protest the recent fuel oil price hike. This new increase in the prices has added to the miseries of pandemic-hit low and fixed-income people, who were struggling with skyrocketing prices already. The prices of kitchen items including vegetables have gone up mainly due to depletion of stock. The supply is very poor at many collection points as farmers are not bringing their vegetables to markets due to the transport strike.
Prices of almost all essentials, including sugar, flour, chicken, fish, cooking oil, and spices, shot up in kitchen markets in the last month. Sugar was being sold at Tk 80 per kg, Tk 5 above the government-fixed rate of Tk 74-75 a kg. Consumers have been spending more on edible oil, and flour. If the ongoing transport strike is prolonged, the prices of the essentials will go beyond the reach of even middle-class people. The Consumers Association of Bangladesh has said usually the supply of vegetables increases in November and their prices start to fall. As the cost of transportation looks likely to increase, there are doubts as to whether consumers will get winter vegetables at relatively cheaper prices this time.
We reiterate that the government should slash the import tax on oil to help stabilise the kitchen market. It is sad that people cannot purchase winter vegetables at cheaper prices although there is enough production in the country. The government can think of subsidising the fuel oil price to stop the spiralling effect on everything. Poor and new poor are already in trouble, and this price hike has also put middle-income people in distress. The government must take effective steps to stop the adverse effects of oil price hike on production and supply chains.
