Sonia told Prothom Alo that her house rent has increased by Tk 400 to Tk 3,000 last January. And due to the increase in the price of daily necessities, the cost of food for five people does not go down to even 10,000 rupees.
Sonia Akhter returned home on Tuesday afternoon to have lunch in between work. Then he spoke to the reporter of Prothom Alo . He said, suddenly the price of everything is going up. But the income did not increase. He often has to borrow from people. He added that if you can buy TCB products, you can save some money. But he has to stand in a long line. People work from home, so he doesn't have time to stand in line.
It was about a poor man. Now let's see how the family of middle income people is doing. Mahin Uddin from Malibagh has been working in a private company for more than a decade. His monthly salary is around one lakh rupees. He is the only earner in a family of five. He told Prothom Alo that his house rent was not increased in January 2021 due to Corona. However, the landlord increased the rent by Tk 2,500 last January. Before Corona, the monthly cost of food was 25 to 26 thousand rupees. As the price of daily commodities has gone up, now that cost has gone up to 36 to 38 thousand rupees.
Mahin said his salary had increased by Tk 3,650 in January. He claimed that the cost has increased several times as much as the salary has increased. So the savings that you used to make every month have to be eliminated.
On Tuesday, three Prothom Alo reporters asked two government employees (16th grade), three private employees, three small businessmen, two domestic workers, two factory workers and a home caretaker to find out how much the price of daily commodities is affecting the lives of ordinary people . He spoke to a rickshaw puller. Eight of the 14 said they now have to borrow almost every month to support their families. And four said they save some, but less than before.
Expenditure has increased in all four sectors of the general public. The four sectors are purchasing food and household items, housing and service bills, children's education and transportation costs. An analysis of the market price list of the government agency Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) shows that prices of rice, oil, pulses, chicken, liquefied petroleum or LP gas rose by 18 to 72 per cent in February last year compared to February, the month before the first corona patient was identified in the country. Up to percent. Due to the increase in diesel price, bus and launch fares have gone up by 28 to 40 percent.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the prices of some commodities are expected to rise further. The holy month of Ramadan is ahead. In the meantime, a crisis has been created in the market with soybean oil. The government has taken new initiatives to increase the prices of gas, electricity and water. All in all, there is a lot of worry in the coming days about where the suffering of the common people will end up.
When asked, Golam Rahman, president of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) , told Prothom Alo : If it is increased, a terrible situation will come down on the common people. ' "The prime minister has already said that subsidies need to be reduced," he said. I would say there is another work to be done. The wastage of government due to untimely decision has to be reduced first.
How much the price has gone up
According to TCB, the price of coarse rice in February was 32 per cent as compared to February 2020, fine rice 28, bottled soybean oil 55, open soybean oil 72, coarse lentil pulses 63, sugar 32, broiler chicken 21, open flour 22 and LPG. Percentage increased.
A family of five working people consumes 40 kg of rice per month. According to TCB's price list, on February 1, 2020, it used to cost 1,450 rupees to buy 40 kg of coarse rice. And last month it took 1,900 rupees. This means that just buying rice has increased the cost by about 500 rupees.
A family of five middle-income people consumes an average of five liters of soybean oil a month. It used to cost 512 rupees to buy oil on February 1, 2020. And last month it took more than 600 rupees to buy this oil at the price fixed by the government. However, it is difficult to find oil in the market at the price fixed by the government.
Prices of fish, meat and vegetables also increased in the market like rice and oil. The price of broiler chicken has increased by Rs 25 per kg in the last two years. Before Corona, chicken was sold at Rs 115-120 per kg. And last month the price was 140-150 rupees. And most of the vegetables are being sold at 50-60 rupees per kg.
The cabbage that farmers sell at an average price of Tk 13 and a half is sold in the retail market in Dhaka at Tk 36. Not only cabbage, but also eggplant, bean, cauliflower and green chillies are sold at two to three times higher prices in Dhaka market than at the farmer level.
How much the expenditure increased in two years
Raihan Mollah has been living with his family in a slum in Rupnagar, Mirpur for eight years. Age 47 years. Last Tuesday, he said, the cost of buying rice, oil, pulses, onions, eggs, flour, sugar, fish, meat and vegetables for his family of eight has increased by about Tk 7,000 in two years.
In addition to Raihan Mollah, three other members of his family earned. In all, the income of four people is 35 thousand rupees. However, Raihan Mollah is worried about the rise in prices of daily commodities. He said that income and expenditure were equal for so many days. Somehow. Now the way prices are rising every day, it is difficult to run for months. Already borrowed.
According to a survey conducted by the government agency Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in October 2020, the income of people in Corona decreased by 20 percent at that time. In March 2020, the average monthly income of each family was 19 thousand 425 rupees. In August of that year it decreased to 15 thousand 492 rupees. In other words, the income per family decreases by about four thousand rupees in five months. About 6 percent of the households surveyed had some form of financial problem at the time.
However, now some people are saying that their income has increased a bit recently after the outbreak of corona. Unemployed members of someone's family have found work. Rickshaw pullers have increased the fare a bit. Sales of small traders have increased slightly. The annual salaries of government employees have been increased. Some non-government organizations have increased their salaries a little bit. Of course, commodity prices have risen at a higher rate than that.
The two friends live together in a rented house in Tejgaon. One of them is a government employee. He told Prothom Alo about his inability to reveal his name and said that he gets a total salary of Tk 20,000. The monthly rent for his house is seven thousand rupees. Rice, pulses, oil, sugar, onions and other daily necessities cost around Rs 7,000 per month. He has to pay about three and a half thousand rupees. Apart from this, the salary of a housemaid, electricity, water and cable TV bill and other sectors cost one thousand rupees per person.
The employee said, 'There is no money to save at the end of the month for hand expenses, transportation expenses and other expenses. I can't even send the necessary money to my parents at home. '
Muhammad Nurunnabi, the caretaker of a house in the metropolitan residential area of the capital. He is the only earner in the world. The total salary is 25 thousand rupees. Being a caretaker of the house, he does not need rent. However, he is frustrated to run the family. According to his calculations, the market cost per month is 15 thousand rupees. And the cost of the child's education is three thousand. Three thousand more for sending their children to school and for their own travel. Out of this 21,000 rupees, the remaining 4,000 rupees of his salary was spent on medicines and hand expenses. Asked how much money is being spent in any sector, Nurunnabi said the average market cost has increased by Tk 5,000 to Tk 6,000 in two years.
Mostafizur Rahman, a special fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a private research institute, said that the purchasing power of people with limited income has decreased due to the rise in prices of daily commodities. He told Prothom Alo that because of this, those who were just above the poverty line have gone below the poverty line. At present, it is necessary to adjust the tariffs of various daily commodities to give relief to the consumers. Apart from that, Bangladesh Bank has to be active in maintaining stability in the exchange rate of dollar. The next budget will have to increase subsidies and social security for the common man.
0 Comments