Price-hike continues unabated

As prices of essential commodities are on the rise, low and fixed income group people are being forced to buy or consume less than what they usually do. Sales of certain essentials including rice, oil, sugar, flour, powdered milk, pulses including lentil, onion, potato, garlic, ginger, fishes, green and dry chillies have gone down substantially in recent days as their prices have shot up significantly within a short span of time, traders said. The price of sugar has more than doubled in the last eight months hitting between Tk 68 and Tk 84 per kilogram (kg). Average sugar price ranged between Tk 30 and Tk 32 per kg in September last year. But the price hit as high as Tk 70 a kg late this week in city's grocery shops. Prices of onion rose by 50 per cent, potato 30 per cent, garlic 30 per cent, and broiler chickens 13 per cent within just a month, according to the daily monitoring report prepared by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). Prices of lentil, eggs, palm oil, flour, fish (ruhi), beef and mutton have shot up between 3.0 per cent and 9.0 per cent over its prices on June 4, the TCB report said. Daily essential price monitoring report prepared by the state-run trading agency is sent to the Prime Minister's Office, all the ministries concerned and to other important government offices regularly. Prices of some essential commodities including, lentil, powdered milk, soybean and some other commodities are still volatile because their supply depends on imports. And the cost of import has gone up as Bangladesh Taka (BDT) lost its value by over six per cent against the US dollar in the last two months. According to traders, while some companies have already adjusted the prices of their powdered milk, some others are mulling to increase the same. The price of a popular brand milk powder, Dano, rose by Tk 30 per kg in just one week. The price of 500 gram plastic-pack milk powder ranged between Tk 185 and Tk 190 in the retail market late this week, which was between Tk 170 and Tk 175 one month back. "It has become very difficult to budget the household expenditure as prices of almost everything are rising but our income is not," said Roksana Begum, a banker who lives in Agrabad in Chittagong. "I need at least 4.0kg of sugar a month for my five-member family but I will buy only 2.0kg for this month as the price has abnormally gone up," she added. According to the TCB report, the price of potato was between Tk 14 and Tk 15 a kg late this week, the price of which ranged between Tk 6.0 and Tk 7.0 a kg during the same period last year. Onion price was Tk 15 a kg just a month ago, which is now selling at Tk 35 a kg. The price of a dozen eggs was Tk 66 a month back, which is now selling at Tk 84. Lentil was selling at Tk 120 a kg late last week but the price was Tk 88 five months back. Garlic was selling at Tk 95 a kg, the price of which was Tk 70 a week ago. "People consume more when things are cheaper but they tend to buy less when prices go up," said Karim, a retailer at the Karnafully kitchen market. He also said sales of some essential items like sugar, lentil, and moog dal have gone down substantially after the price hike. Meanwhile, the government last week could not launch open market sale (OMS) of sugar properly at Tk 66 a kg as announced by the commerce ministry. In a bid to stabilise the market, the government earlier decided to expand the OMS and sell a ton of sugar in each of all the 90 wards of Dhaka daily from last week. Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has increased the price of CNG by Tk 5.0 per cubic metre with effect from September 09, 2011. The BERC at a meeting held at its office with its Chairman Syed Yusuf Hossain in the chair has taken the decision to increase the CNG prices. "BERC has the authority to deliver interim order to increase CNG price. The price of per cubic metre CNG will now be Tk 30 from Tk 25 while feed gas price has been increased to Tk 23 from Tk 18. On May this year, BERC hiked CNG prices to Tk 8.25.The government's revenue earning rose by additional Tk 5.52 billion after previous hike in the CNG price. On May 12, 2011, Bangladesh announced the price hike of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by nearly 50 per cent to Tk 25 per cubic metre on the current rate of Tk 16.75. The BERC made the decision as Petrobangla, the state-run oil, gas and mineral resources corporation, submitted a proposal to the commission on October 14, 2010 to raise the fossil fuel price by around 50 per cent. Price of CNG was raised in the country for the last time in April 2008 from Tk 8.5 per cubic meter to Tk 16.75 per cubic meter. CNG price-hike will come as a further burden as the government on May 5 had increased prices of diesel, petrol, octane, kerosene and furnace oil. During the hearings, stakeholders concerned including Consumers Association of Bangladesh, Bus-truck Owners Association and apex trade bodies, demanded withdrawal of the proposal and said the increase will add fuel to the rising prices of essentials. They also said that following the latest hike, diesel is now being traded at Tk 46 per litre, kerosene Tk 46 per litre, petrol Tk 76 per litre, octane Tk 79 per litre, and furnace oil Tk 42 per litre in the country. In a nut shell, it can be said that there is no rational ground for another petrol price hike. If the price of petroleum products is increased by 10 per cent, transport owners increase the fare by 50 per cent, which is illogical, as a result of the significant increase in transportation cost the prices of essential goods shot up further. The low-bred and middle-bred people of the country have been suffering extremely in maintaining their family with their insufficient income. Their living-style is below standard, lives are intolerable to make up their daily lives to the society. The government should take necessary steps immediately for this situation. The writer is Senior Executive, The Premier Bank Securities Limited., O.R.Nizam Road, Chittagong. He can be reached at e-mail : sjewel_cu@yahoo.com