Transport owners are happy. Who will pay for the commoners’ woes?
The 3 November fuel price hike led to a transport fare hike. This begs the question: who is thinking about the needs of the common people, if not the government?
On Sunday evening, soon after the government's announcement of increased public transport fare (for the diesel-run buses and launches), many people took to social media to point out that CNG-run bus owners will inevitably charge the passengers with excess fare from 8 November, even though they have not been impacted by the price hike. Some even spewed anger at them.
They are in all likelihood correct. The sense of anger and despair on these posts point to the unfair system that has been allowing some business elites, particularly in the transport and food sectors, to cash in on an extraordinary situation.
Ordinary people know well that profit-mongering bus owners will not be held accountable for such unfair fare collection because the regulatory bodies' monitoring system is very weak.
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Bangladesh Road Transport Owners' Association and Launch Owners' Association of Bangladesh – two influential bodies in the country's transport sector – called off their nationwide strike on Sunday. This was a result of successfully convincing the government to increase the fares for intra-city and long-haul buses and launches by 26.5 percent, 27 percent and 35.29 percent respectively in the wake of the diesel-kerosene price hike.
On 3 November, the government raised diesel and kerosene prices by Tk15 per litre, citing a volatile global market for crude oil. Overnight, the price jumped from Tk65 to Tk80.
Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti, a passenger-rights watchdog - which sees the government and the transport owners as being on the same side - condemned the unilateral move against the public transport passengers.
The organisation secretary general Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said that the transport owners have made the travel fare costlier, holding the passengers hostage.
Domino effects of fuel price rise: The losers and winners
A win-win situation for the government and the transport owners is unfolding before our eyes while ordinary people end up as the ultimate losers, bearing the brunt of the price hike of the two petroleum products, as well as the public transport fare.
Manzurul Ahsan Khan, president of Biplobi Sarak Poribahan Sramik Federation (a left-leaning transport workers' organisation) and former president of Communist Party of Bangladesh condemned the transport fare hike. According to him, the bus and launch owners did not lose much as they had collected extra fare from the passengers when the government relaxed the Covid-19 restrictions.
"They are mostly extortionists. If the extortion practice of the ruling transport workers' leaders is stopped, fare hike will not be a necessity," he said.
According to news reports, the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) – the lone importer and distributor of crude oil in Bangladesh – earned Tk43,137 crore as profit between 2014-15 and 2020-21 fiscal years.
Local energy experts have said the government could have delayed the fuel price hike for at least six months even with rising international market prices. The experts said the government could have achieved this with subsidies or tax cuts on oil imports.
Given the price hike in the local market, the government now will not incur losses in oil imports. Similarly, the transport owners will not feel the heat of the energy price hike, but the common people will.
There needs to be a formal mechanism where prices are regularly adjusted to inflation instead of such sudden changes. If the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection fails to serve its mandate, a demand for a stronger mechanism must be raised. The government must not act one-sidedly; and they certainly should not act on the side of the business elites.
The CAB general secretary Humayun Kabir believes that the government should not do business by selling fuel to the common people. "Businesses will bargain their best to gain more profit. But the government should ensure fair pricing and stand by the common people," he said.
In a democratic country, consumers should enjoy the right to take part in decision-making when a price hike makes their life more difficult. Unfortunately, we have seen no representative of the consumers and service-seekers in the crucial decision-making process of fuel pricing.
Earlier, we saw the price of essential commodities, including rice, salt, onion, etc. increase abruptly amid an 'artificial' shortage. Moreover, the government did little to solve the crisis immediately.
The price surge and costlier lives
According to the Annual Report 2020 of the Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB), the living expenses of Bangladesh residents rose by 6.88 percent. It grew by 6.50 percent the year before.
The prices of commodities and services also rose by 6.31 percent that year.
Before the latest fuel price hikes, several economists had feared that the living expense would increase further during the recovery from Covid-19 pandemic shocks.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data also suggest that food price inflation rose to 5.21 percent in September from 5.16 percent in August. The non-food price inflation has also increased to 6.19 percent in September, which was 6.13 percent in just the previous month.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data helps to understand the living expenses of common people. In the last year, the price of rice increased by 6-10 percent, flour-wheat by 17-29 percent, edible oil by 47-54 percent, lentils by 17 percent and chicken by 24 percent.
The latest fuel price hike certainly will further increase food and non-food inflation. This makes the poor people the biggest sufferers.
A recently published study by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) found that Bangladesh saw 3.24 crore people fall into poverty since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country last year.
Since the announcement of the fuel price hike, economists and consumer rights organisations have been critical of the government's move, saying that the country's Covid-19 victims and sufferers, except some business elites, should not be pushed into more intense challenges brought on by inflation.
Is the government serving only the business people? If yes, then who will speak up for the common man?
