Arifur Rahman, who works in a private company, has never paid much attention to budget sessions. However, he does check the list of products that have seen a drop or a hike in prices. That is all he cares about. This year, the budget was quite disappointing for him as the number of products that have seen a drop in prices is very low. This was more of a problem than a relief for him.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Arifur Rahman said, “I have been struggling to run my family for the past two years. The prices of daily necessities are constantly rising. I was hoping that there would be some relief in the budget as the cost of living has increased. However, it was quite disappointing.”
The new budget has reduced VAT and taxes on some products, including powdered milk, imported clothes, laptops, water purifiers and dengue kits. Powdered milk is the only product on the list that matters to Arifur. This too forced the government to waive a 20 per cent supplementary duty on imports of powdered milk.