Price hike of daily necessities :is this the new normal in Bd?
A famous quote from Stuart Allard goes by this-”Everything is overpriced nowadays .Three dollars for a small popcorn ?Give me a break .”Although he is not a Bengali ,the context of this quote goes perfectly with the ongoing situation in our country .Prices of almost all daily essentials have shot up in the market due to the ongoing political tension between Ukraine-Russia ,and as the holy Ramadan has arrived the demand for the products has skyrocketed.
Price hike means the increase in the price of the essential commodities in the market. The price hike has now become a very common problem not only in Bangladesh but also all over the world. Recent price-hike or rising prices of essential commodities is the most talked issue in Bangladesh .The prices of essential commodities are going out of the reach of the poor people of our country. Not only the poor but also the middle-class people have become the victim of sky-high prices of essential commodities.
First of all ,because of Ukraine-Russia war global oil prices have soared, and foreign companies have exited Russia as a result it faces the specter of default. Oil and gas prices have surged oversupply fears as Russia is one of the world's biggest producers and exporters of fossil fuels. Russia and Ukraine are breadbaskets for the world ,accounting together for 30 percent of global wheat exports .Moreover, to put pressure on the Western world Russia banned their airspace which resulted in a massive economic loss for the world as the flights now have to go a long way and spend more fuel to reach their destination which increased the price of the commodities .As a result ,the price of gas and electricity has increased .In Prothom alo newspaper ,they published the chart of gas price hike in six sectors.
https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/oq4hzttttw
Lower income groups ,as well as people living on fixed incomes ,have already abandon the intake of meat ,fish ,etc. Even though we are pleased to know that the government is going to launch a food friendly programme (FFP),where it will sell rice at a cheaper rate for 50 lakh poor families, as well as expand its open market sale(OMS) to the upazila level ,these are but temporary band-aid measures .Not all people can access these programmes either. Due to prices being astronomically high .The price of everything has increased .Every food item is increasing .Even the price of rice is also increasing .Although rice is the basic food of our country .If the price of foods increase day by day how will buy how will they survive .The price of foods is increasing but not the salary .It is so tough for poor as well as for middle class family .Recently, the price of meats has increased .The price of mutton is so high that people cannot afford to buy .Food Inflation in Bangladesh averaged 6.41 percent from 2013 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 9.94 percent in August of 2022 and a record low of 3.77 percent in February of 2016.
Moreover, a hike in the price of daily necessities is always evident during the period of Ramadan. Actually, in Bangladesh, there is no proper reason for the hike in price because usually there is enough supply to fulfill the demand. The syndicates of Bangladesh always inflate the prices of commodities to satisfy their ill motives .The price of the most-consumed items during Ramadan such as chickpeas, dried peas and dates has increased in the wholesale markets in Dhaka and Chattogram due to a supply shortage, two months before the fasting month begins.
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/news/ramadan-items-already-costlier-3230801
Bangladesh is a small country .It cannot produce enough food for its increasing population. The market syndicate is mostly responsible for the price-hike in Bangladesh. Business syndicate, smuggling, and corruption are also responsible for it. Some dishonest people store essential commodities with a view to making a huge profit. This causes a sharp decrease in the supply of commodities in the market and as result prices are increased. Our political instability greatly contributes to it. One of the factors which cause price-hike is less agricultural production due to natural disasters.
It should be solved at any cost. To prevent price-hike, any syndicate activities are to be suppressed boldly and inflation of money should be controlled. It is high time to solve the problem. More or less, almost all people of all classes are suffering from the problem of price-hike. Conscious people should work together with the Government in this regard. The government should also emphasize on the increase of production by applying scientific agricultural methods. The agricultural sector should be given priority in the annual budget. Otherwise, we all fall into great danger. Therefore, we need to make all-out efforts to come out of these serious crises.
Comments
Post a Comment