By Willibertstar Diengdoh
Inflation hits the poor the hardest but we are hardly aware and least of all protest against these inflationary trends. We wonder how the poor can cope up with the steep increase in prices of essential commodities. Yet the elected representatives hardly spend time to talk of price rise. The steep hike in the price of LPG cylinders now makes it difficult for the poor to use it for cooking, thereby making a farce of the free LPG cylinders for BPL families.
From the data given below it may be noticed that the inflation in pricing of domestic gas in Meghalaya is not being addressed by elected representatives in the State. The main intent of this article is not to make issues, but to address the matter seriously. In most of the cases people from different professions and housewives in particular residing in the urban and rural areas of the State would agree that there is unregulated inflation which is ignored by the governing authorities. For preparation of food, thermal energy is one of the main elements to be considered especially for the urban residents. We totally depend on the availability of LPG and not on the availability of firewood, since burning of wood for preparation of food is affects the health of the person involved in the process. Also time is wasted in collection of firewood and cooking on it.
The prevailing situation in our State is not so good; since almost all essential commodities are becoming costlier by the day and the consequence are not promising. Therefore, regulation of prices is very important so that uniform growth will takes place in the society.
Let me give some examples: Lets us try to compare three persons A, B, C on the potential of purchasing power. Let’s consider that all the three persons are eager to buy products of the same origin. Person A is an Officer earning Rs 50, 000 per month while Person B is a clerk earning Rs 35, 000 and Person C is a labourer earning Rs 15, 000 per month. As per the data below, if the cost of an LPG per cylinder is Rs 684 but the price has suddenly been increased to Rs 1145, who will the price increase affect the most? Naturally the one earning the least! That is why poor people will have to sacrifice and start prioritising whether to boil water to drink or cook meals for breakfast/ dinner or prepare tea or boil water for bathing. This is why we have agitations and demands for increase in salaries and pay enhancelent which is a genuine demand by the people in the State.
Fuel is one of the components that is measured and calculated to determine the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The below facts & figures confirm that there is an inflation that is going on in our State which needs to be addressed to mitigate the problems of the citizens. Only then will the government be able to improve the welfare of the people in the State. To ascertain that the figures below are genuine and not based on assumptions, kindly validate the same by verifying it on our own card (LPG card column name “Retail selling price”).
In the table below column of Price Increased/Decreased, the depicted value is circled RED when it is greater and equal to 100, when value is lesser than 100 and greater and equal to 0 then it is Yellow and when value is less than 0 or negative it is GREEN. An assessment has been made that price rise in most cases which occurs on a frequency of 17 months, is below Rs 100; that occurs 15 times, more than Rs 100 is 1 time and lesser than 0 Rupees occurs 1 time, which is -9.
In the table below column e of Cumulative Price Increased/Decreased, the depicted value is circled RED when it is greater and equal to 100, when value is lesser than 100 and greater and equal to 0 then it is YELLOW and when value is less than 0 or negative it is GREEN. An assessment has been made that most of the price rise that occurs on a frequency of 17 months ie from July 2020 to September, 2022, the value which is greater and equal to 100 (occurs 13 times), the value less than 100 and greater and equal to 0 (occurs 3 times) and value less than 0 or negative (nil). A graph has been plotted from the base year and month of July 2020, where the rate of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was @ Rupees 684, till September, 2022 where the rate was @ Rupees 1145, with a cumulative increase @ Rupees 461, and the total percentage of price increase is 40.26% (Forty Point Twenty Six percent) almost double the price rise in the span of 2 years ie from July 2020 to September, 2022.