Consumers puzzled over commodity price hikes

The government should’ve practised more foresight in case of fuel price hikes as it triggered the price hikes in many basic commodities and contributed to uncontrollable inflation, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) President Golam Rahman said on Tuesday.

“There is no justification for suddenly increasing the price of this product,” he said in an exclusive conversation with The Business Post, emphasising that the entire economy depends largely on fuel.

“The abnormal increase in the price of the commodity (fuel) has pushed the country towards uncontrollable inflation,” he stated.

“The government is conducting business with fuel. In business, you have to face both profit and loss. The government reaps the profit but declines to shoulder the loss— that’s just not right. No wonder inflation is in double digits now,” the CAB president added.

“CAB has repeatedly said that fuel prices in the global market will go up and down. Despite that, the price of fuel in the local market should be kept stable,” Golam Rahman said, explaining that fuel oil prices should be kept stable because the price of a lot of commodities depends on it.

“Prices have gone up in the global market in the past few months. After adjusting the prices accordingly in Bangladesh, inflationary pressure has gone up. Hiking the price of fuel has not only hiked inflation, but also affected the country’s development, exports and imports,” he said.

“The government has previously subsidised fuel prices to keep them affordable. In 2009, the price of fuel increased abnormally in the international market, but the government kept the country’s market stable with subsidies. As a result, the impact of the global crisis was not felt acutely in the country,” the CAB president added.

However, he clarified the association’s stance in this matter, saying that CAB is not in favour of subsidising fuel prices as a solution for the situation.

“There are suggestions about fuel subsidies from various quarters, but it is not a viable solution in this case,” he said.