Poor to feel the pinch

The government’s proposal to raise the price of subsidised rice distributed to the public by Tk 5 per kilogram will put a lot of stress on the poor and those on fixed incomes, whose earnings have remained unchanged, according to experts.

There are no significant steps in the budget for the coming fiscal year to alleviate this stress, they added.

In addition, the budget allocation for the Open Market Sales (OMS) program has been proposed to be cut by 11.5 per cent in the new budget.

It has been proposed that Tk 1,720.13 crore be allocated to the OMS sector, which is a reduction of 11.5 per cent from the current fiscal year’s allocation of Tk 1,943.56 crore.

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Fahmida Khatun said, “Inflation has been identified as the budget’s biggest challenge, but the types of measures required to control inflation are lacking.”

“Meanwhile, budget allocations have been reduced in some areas of the social security sector, including the OMS program. Low- and fixed-income people would suffer as a result of this decision,” she added.

As per the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), the price of rice has gone up even in this peak Boro season.

Currently, inflation has pushed up coarse rice prices by 7.5 per cent per kg. To put it another way, a kilogram of rice that cost Tk 100 a year ago now costs Tk 107.5.

Meanwhile, the price of fine rice has increased by Tk 10.5 per cent a kg.

In his budget speech on Thursday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that as a free emergency food aid, arrangements have been made to distribute rice, relief (cash) and baby food to the poor who have suddenly become unemployed due to the outbreak of the pandemic.

The ongoing programmes of selling rice at a price of only Tk 10 per kg to the low-income people across the country have been accelerated.

“We provided food for about 13.9 million poor and low-income people who suddenly lost their jobs due to the outbreak of the pandemic. Besides, the government has sold rice at the rate of only Tk 10 per kg among 7.06 million low-income families,” he said.

“We will continue this programme in FY2022-23. In the lean season namely September, October and November and March and April food assistance of 30 kg of rice each month at the rate of Tk 15 (per kg) would be provided to 50 lakh low-income households,” the finance minister said.

“In the budget for FY 2022-23, I propose allocating Tk 1,13,576 crore for the social safety net, which is 16.75 per cent of the total budget and 2.55 per cent of GDP,” added the finance minister.