UNB, Dhaka :
Soaring inflation and higher price of commodities are forcing many middle- and lower-income people to cut their expenses during the Eid-ul-Azha festival.
According to market observers, a good number of middle-class families are unlikely to buy sacrificial animals for qurbani this year as they can’t afford the cost.
Talking to UNB, Harun-Ur-Rashid, who works at a private company and lives in Dhaka’s Modhubag, said he can’t join qurbani with others as his monthly income fails to keep pace with rising expenses.
Harun’s monthly salary is Tk64,000. After paying for house rent, children’s education, medicines and treatment of ailing parents, he falls short of Tk10,000 to 15,000 every month. The deficit, which he meets with loans from relatives and friends, has been occurring for the last six months. He blames his woes on the runaway inflation that has pushed up his cost of living.
Sheuly Begum, who earns Tk30,000 a month as a school teacher in the capital, finds it difficult to survive after paying for the daily necessities, her son’s university tuition fee, treatment and medicines for her mother-in-law. Money earned from a fixed deposit she had opened with her late husband’s pension fund comes to her rescue even though the interest rate has been declining in recent years.
“It has been tough to run the family decently,” she said.
Harun and Sheuly both said their income has not increased, though the cost of living has jumped, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr AM Mirza Azizul Islam, former caretaker government’s economic advisor, told UNB that growing inflation leading to price hikes has hit the middle class hard. But it is happening globally, not only in Bangladesh.
He suggested the government goes for a stable exchange rate of the US dollar which is usually required for import payments. The rising cost of the dollar is pushing the import bill up and thus causing a price hike.
Mirza Aziz suggested increasing the production of different essentials at home so the prices remain affordable for the common people.
He also warned that the situation may worsen if the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war is prolonged.
SM Nazer Hossain, vice-president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (ACB), said the government should provide subsidies on some commodities so that people with limited income can buy those products.
He said because of a lack of market monitoring by the relevant authorities, the businesses are making hefty profits on some products, passing the burden on the common people.
He said consumers did not get the benefits even when the prices of edible oil, wheat, rice, onion and other spices started declining, and the National Board of Revenue withdrew VAT and import duty on some essential goods, Nazer said.
The annual inflation rate in Bangladesh edged higher to 6.22 per cent in March this year from 6.17 per cent in the previous month. It was the highest inflation rate since October of 2020, driven by prices of food items (6.34 per cent vs 6.22 per cent in February).
The inflation rate jumped to 7.42 per cent in May this year which was 5.26 per cent in the same month in 2021.
Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said “The average cost of living on a ‘regular’ diet for one household of four people living in an apartment with one bedroom outside the city centre in Dhaka in May 2022 would be approximately Tk42,548.”
“The average cost of living on a compromised diet for one household of four people living in an apartment with one bedroom outside of the city centre in Dhaka in May 2022 would be approximately Tk29,206.”
For families living in the city centre with a one-bedroom apartment on a regular diet, the cost of living per month is Tk47,182, Fahmida added.
