Atrocious price hike leads people to debt traps

The prices of daily essentials are rising and rising and the utility services are getting more and more expensive day by day. With the prices of petroleum products at a historic high in Bangladesh, the transportation is getting costlier. This has been having a telling effect on the limited-income groups in particular. It looks like everyone has his/her own interpretation why prices are rising. The concerned authorities are linking it to the surge of international market. However, can anyone answer me why prices do not come down in our country when prices drop in the international market?

Low-income or limited-income people are bearing the brunt of price spiral since their income does not rise. Many of them are borrowing money, which is tangling them in double whammy debt traps. The government must make a move as early as possible in this regard or we may have none to save us from this situation.

Rafid Alam

Tejgaon, Dhaka,

rafid.alam@northsouth.edu