Inflation: a bug bear

Transformation wise, Zhemgang is measured as one of the grooming regions in the country. Much of the places are still virgin because of less development taking place. It is enveloped with serene atmosphere and well donned lush green forest - a key reason why others should look up to this place as an edifice and learn many things. 

 

However, it sometimes is inapt to describe Zhemgang as far cut off place because things go off so atypical, particularly the business trend.  It is shooting up without any lawful means. Shopkeepers are unconcern about the buyers and their status. What they care about is the profit from the buyers. For civil servants, it is not much of a problem but what about those who don’t have sound income source.

I do understand the rationale behind business and living life in a competitive market but they should also be equipped with ethics of selling and not to slash off customers by pricing things at their own will. It has become difficult to shop things as the prices are soaring up uncontrollably. Customers are becoming disinclined even to window shop. 

It is not at all a problem to rip off customers by five or ten bucks. The problem is when shopkeepers blindly hike up the price by hundred bucks when the maximum retail price clearly states that it is fifty. 

To my surprise, it is four pieces of chewing gum for nu five. Soon it might be one who knows. For fifteen minutes of net surfing, it is seventy. The irony is that by the time a page is opened, it is already three minutes gone. With the same amount we can Google for an hour in capital city of country where modernization has reached almost every corners of the place. Forget about printings and other accessory works, it is way too beyond thoughts. It has become unsafe to enter a shop without sufficiently stacked dough. Otherwise, it would be an embarrassment.

Few hundreds are just abundant to procure kitchen stuffs which are indispensable. I hardly see people buying cloths. Most of the shops are seen with same cloth dangling for about a month desperately waiting for buyers. But hardly anybody turns up because of the price phobia.

Now with the plan of pay elevation and housing allowance by the new government, the prices are more likely to ascend severely. Perhaps, it is jovial news for the house owners and business folk who intends on thickening their wallet. I hope that along with the pay hike and housing allowance, the concerned people also lay down some guidelines which will eventually rescue the buyers from being robbed. 

The unease also evenly implies to all the concerned house landlords inflating house rents at their handiness, that to not to contravene tenancy act of Bhutan which evidently states “the owner shall not increase the rent before two years from the day on which a new tenant occupies the house”. I am flummoxed if there is one here who is eyeing on this serious matter.

The country has been since then diseased with rupee crunch and here we are yet to suffer from ngultrum deficit.