The cost of living rose by 8.44 per cent in the city last year than that of 2016 due to soaring prices of rice, edible oil, vegetables, gas and other services, says Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB).
According to the latest survey conducted by CAB, the cost of services also went up by 7.17 per cent during the same period.
Living cost increased by 6.47 per cent while the cost of services by 5.81 per cent in 2016 than that of 2015, it said.
The findings of the study were disclosed at a press conference held at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) in the city on Tuesday.
The report showed that the prices of rice, onion, beef, vegetables, liquid milk, house rent and cooking gas witnessed highest spike.
Prices of rice increased, on an average, by 20.4 per cent while coarse rice by 24 per cent last year, hitting hard the commoners who were also forced to pay additional 8.14 per cent for house rent during the period, it said.
Prices of onion of local variety soared by 45 per cent while imported onion by 57.5 per cent, vegetables by 24 per cent, beef by 19.72 per cent, gas (two-burner) by 23.08 per cent, liquid milk by 20.36 per cent, edible oil by 11 per cent, salt by 11.03 per cent and sugar by 12.8 per cent last year.
The report was prepared based on the data collected from 15 city markets on 114 food products and 22 daily essentials as well as 14 services including gas, electricity and water.
Market syndication, lack of government monitoring, weak import policy and natural calamity were responsible for such a rising trend in prices of commodities, CAB president Gulam Rahman said.
He said three spells of flooding (April, June and August) and outbreak of rice blast in the country caused a severe blow to rice production last year.
The government's delay in easing import and natural disaster gave the traders and millers an opportunity to raise the prices at their will, he said, adding that the millers and traders raised coarse rice prices to over Tk 50 a kilogram in September.
He said cuts in import duty to 2.0 per cent from 28 per cent helped bring down coarse rice prices to some extant --- Tk 43-Tk 44 per kg.
However, the CAB urged the government to open a new cell under the Ministry of Commerce or the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) or set up a separate ministry to keep the prices of essentials within the purchasing capacity of common people through strict monitoring and analysis.
Mubasshar Hussain, architect and convener of the national committee on consumers' resolution under CAB, said the government's development discourse, based on growth of gross domestic product (GDP), gave nothing to the country's 20 million hardcore poor in 2017.
"Rather poor became poorer," he said. "My neighbour has become very rich while I have become poorer, but jointly we have been wealthy. It is now the discourse of development in the country," he said while explaining the issue.
He said 120 million low-income people in the country, who earn highest US$ 2 a day each, were hit hard by high inflation last year.
CAB energy adviser Prof M Shamsul Alam said the price of household gas and electricity increased significantly in 2017.
CAB proposed that the government should generate electricity using the low-cost technology, he said. "But Power Development Board (PDB) is reluctant to produce electricity at higher costs using quick rental method which has been causing the country to count additional Tk 63.42 billion annually."
Supplying gas to rental power plants instead of government-run plants, using diesel instead of furnace oil at Meghnaghat plant, was raising the prices of electricity, he said.
The CAB made a ten-point proposal for keeping the prices of essentials within the buying capacity of the common people. The proposals include formation of a new ministry or setting up of a separate cell under the Ministry of Commerce or the PMO.
To keep the market prices stable, the CAB proposed buying paddy directly from the farmers at government-fixed prices under contract farming to give both the consumers and farmers a relief.
The association also suggested introducing crop insurance for the farmers.
It proposed reducing the prices of fossil fuel, considering a decline in the global market to minimise production costs in Bangladesh. It also suggested setting up of 'a house rent commission' in line with the high court's order to protect interests of tenants.
To keep prices of essentials within the range of common people and protect consumers' rights, CAB wants proper implementation of existing Consumers Right Protection Act 2009, Competition Law 2012, Safe Food Act 2013 and Formalin Act 2015.
CAB also proposed that the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) be engaged in import trade to make the market more competitive in the country which could help consumers get essentials at reasonable prices.
CAB Secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan, among others, spoke on the occasion.
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