Middleclass still out of comfort zone

Watching television in the afternoon is rare for Abidur Rahman. But keen to know what the new budget holds for a middle class family like his, he opted to upset his daily routine yesterday. He returned from work early and tuned in to hear Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s speech.
Last year’s budget by the caretaker government was a letdown. It was anything but good news for the middle-class families struggling to make ends meet with prices of essentials already spiralled out of reach.
Things are however different this year and so are expectations. After a two-year break, an elected government is rolling out the country’s annual financial plan.
A private firm employee and breadwinner in a four-member family, Abidur was eager to know what this democratic government is going to do for the millions of people in middle income brackets.
But as far as he could make out, he found no measures tailored to suit the needs of the middle classes tired of tightening their belt.
Though prices of some essentials have come down after the AL-led grand alliance took office in January, life for the downscale urbanites is still far from comfortable.
Moreover, the global economic downturn is poised to make matters worse.
Hope that the new budget would take some pressure off them was pretty much gone with Muhith’s speech.
Abidur’s musing over the budgetary impact on his purse was interrupted by his wife Shahana’s query if he knew the price of mosquito coils was going up.
He replied not only the price of containing mosquito menace, that of many a daily necessity will increase.
As he thought he would better read tomorrow’s newspapers to have a clear idea of what this budget might mean to him, it struck him that maybe the price of newspaper too will increase as the budget proposes to up the import duties on newsprint.
The sight of his son engrossed in doing homework in the next room reminded that he will have to cough up extra money also to buy schoolbags, powder milk, utensils, and toiletries.
At that point, his friend Babar, a businessman, called to tell him how ‘moronic’ it was for him [Abidur] not to buy the mobile phone set he had planned for his wife.
Now that the government is going to impose extra duty on them, phone sets will get pricey.
Abidur, who could not watch Muhith’s speech undisturbed for a couple of power cuts, asked him if he thinks the budget would help decrease the prices of rice, lentils, edible oil, salt and other essentials, Babar said, “Probably no.”
However, he added, one good thing is that medical expenses would come down with a cut in import duties on pharmaceutical raw materials and withdrawal of VAT from doctors’ fees.
The two friends agree that the budget has a number of some other positives as well. The green measures spelt out by the finance minister point to the government’s acknowledgement of increasing environmental degradations.
Hanging up the phone, Abidur lit a cigarette. As smoke rings curled overhead, he wondered if he would be able to quit smoking now that the price of cigarettes is set to mark another rise.
The brand he prefers would cost Tk four a stick just before the last budget. Now it would cost Tk five, and may prove a blessing in disguise for him.

Courtesy of The Daily Star