Home ›› 06 Jun 2022 ›› Back
People are forced to work out a compromise between their incomes and daily essentials to survive due to high inflation and the reeling economy.
The average monthly cost of a basket of 20 regular diets for a household of four persons in Dhaka city was Tk21,358 as of 30 May 2022 but lives on a ‘compromised diet’ without fish, mutton, beef or chicken was Tk8,016.
The average cost of living on a ‘regular’ diet for one household of four persons living in an apartment with one bedroom outside of city centre in Dhaka in May 2022 was approximately Tk42,548 but when compromised it came down to Tk29,206.
Average living cost of same areas and same family size with three bedrooms was at Tk56, 469 and if compromised it could be managed with Tk43, 127.
The findings came out in a Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) research titled ‘State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY2021-22, Third Reading’ published on June 6.
CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun presented the research paper.
Apart from the high price of basic food items, the high price of non-food items was putting a huge burden on households.
Crowd-sourced data shows that maintaining even a modest standard of living was becoming prohibitively expensive for households in Dhaka, according to the research paper.
In the absence of support from the government, out-of-pocket expenditure on health for a household of four persons was equivalent to Tk2, 625 per month in 2019 at the purchasing power parity.
It is apprehended that many households are at risk of falling below the poverty line due to out-of-pocket expenditure on health, it claimed.
Assuming a 5 per cent annual increment of the basic salary since the latest year of wage review, the minimum wage in 2022 for workers in all industries would not be sufficient for affording a regular diet, average monthly cost of living for a household of four persons.
Thus, high inflation is directly threatening the food security of workers earning a minimum wages. Hence, it is urgent to revisit and revise the minimum wages of workers in all industries immediately and yearly increment should be of minimum double digit, CPD suggested.
CPD believes that though Bangladesh economy is facing several challenges in the backdrop of global political and economic crises domestic mismanagement is also one of the reasons for inflation.
Tax and vat on essential commodities is also the reasons for inflation.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) should immediately consider removing the advance income tax (AIT), advance tax (AT) and regulatory duty (RD) on all imported essential food items, CPD observed.
They also suggested monitoring collusive practices and actual demand estimation of rice and other food items in the country.
