Arun Bikash Dey, Chittagong
Schoolteacher Sourav Guha has become depressed about life as it has become very difficult to meet his family expenditures with his limited income.
Last week he had a shouting match with a staff of an emergency power supply company when the staff asked him to pay an extra Tk30 for supplying power to his residence on the port city’s DC Road.
Before the latest rise in fuel prices, the company had charged Tk 150 a month to power a tube light during load shedding by supplying power from an alternate generator.
“The emergency power supply helps my children prepare their lessons during power cuts. But now its charge has gone beyond my reach,” said Sourav.
“Recently my landlord has hiked the house rent. Prices of essentials have shot up and even the bus operators are charging higher fares; so how the middle-income earners would survive?” questioned the worried teacher.
The same question has been lurking in the minds of many middle and lower income people as the sharp rise in living costs is hitting their lives hard.
The spiralling prices of essentials, skyrocketing house rents and soaring utility charges have been pushing their lifestyles downward.
Mahtab Uddin, a private sector employee, said he has been compelled to change his lifestyle.
“I used to take tea with some snacks twice a day in a shop near my office. But to balance my income and expenses, I have recently stopped this daily habit,” he said.
He does not eat any food at the office now, except his homemade lunch.
Traders in the city’s kitchen markets cited the hike in fuel prices as the reason for daily essentials getting costlier.
The rise in petroleum prices has had a knock-on effect on the prices of essentials as the transportation costs for goods have increased significantly.
Edible oil refiners have hiked the price of a five-litre bottle by Tk 10, said Abu Bakkar, a salesman at Altaf Store of Chawkbazar kitchen market.
The prices of different varieties of rice have also increased by Tk 2 per kilogramme, he added.
Abdul Aziz, a vegetable trader, said the price of almost every vegetable has increased by Tk 2 to Tk3 per kg after the fuel price hike.
According to Chittagong University teacher Dr Mainul Islam, installation of quick rental power plants — run on diesel and furnace oil — is putting pressure on the country’s economy.
The government imports petroleum at a higher rate, but sells it to the plants at a much cheaper rate, pointed out the teacher of economics.
He suggested the government should cut import taxes on diesel and kerosene to check the price spiral of essentials.
On November 10, the government increased the fuel prices by Tk 5 a litre to reduce subsidy on imports of petroleum products.
Petrol now sells for Tk 86 per litre, octane Tk 89, diesel Tk 56, kerosene Tk 56, and furnace oil Tk 55.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
