Special Correspondent: At a refuelling station at Paribagh in the capital, Arifur Rahman watches the digits quickly climb on the pump: Tk100, Tk200, Tk300. The numbers showing how much octane he is getting in his motorbike fuel tank rise, too. But much more slowly. Painfully slowly.
“I will have to spend Tk2,000 more every month now for fuel alone. Besides, there will be fuel-led commodity price shock and all that,” Arifur, a 40-something private company’s senior executive, sounded hapless.
To continue riding the motorbike to go to his office at Niketan, he said his family will have to skimp on daily essentials further.
Limited-income people like Arifur, who managed to buy a motorcycle or a car with their hard-earned money, strategise other cost-cutting measures that include reducing trips, cutting back on protein intake and switching to rickshaws for now.
Some even mull selling their vehicles, as refuelling station staff said he did not witness such agony and agitation among the customers in his 30-year career until now.
“They keep asking us the same question: why did the government abruptly raise the fuel prices to a historic high,” said Hanif, a refuelling assistant at Purbachal Traders petrol pump at Paribagh.
“Drivers of the ride-sharing companies are showing more fury,” he told The Business Standard.
On Saturday, Bangladesh raised fuel prices by around 50%, a move that will trim the country’s subsidy burden but put more pressure on inflation that is already running above 7%.
