Soaring inflation and higher price of commodities are forcing many middle and lower income people to cut the expenses on Eid-ul-Azha festival.
According to maket 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 that he can’t join qurbani even on share as his monthly income fails to keep pace with rising expenses.
His monthly salary is TK64000 . After paying for house rent, children’s education, medicnes and treatment of ailing parents he falls shorts of Tk10000 to 15000 every month. The deficit, which he meets with loans from relatives and friends, has been occuring 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 Tk 30,00 a month as a school teacher in the capital, finds it diffcult 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 desporit she had opened with her late husband’s pension fund comes to her rescue even though the interest rate has been decling in recent years.
“It has been tough to run the family in a decent manner,” she said.
Haru and Sheuly both said their income has not increased, though 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 hike 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 US dollar which is usually required for import payment. The rising cost of dollar is pushing the import bill up and thus causing price hike.
Mirza Aziz suggested increasing 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 Consumers Association of Bangladesh (ACB) said the government should provide subsidy on some commodities, so that fixed income people can buy those products.
He said for lack of market monitoring by the relevant authorities, the businesses are making hefty profit on some products passing the burden on 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 NBR 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 CPD, 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 center 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 center in Dhaka in May 2022 would be approximately Tk29,206.”
For those families who are living in the city center with a one bedroom apartment on a regular diet, the cost of living per month is Tk47,182, she added.
