I learnt when I was young, ‘Lekhpora korey je garighora chorey shey’. (Those who study get to ride cars). While growing up I came to learn that it is not only through studying that I can get to ride a car, studying is the blessing of debi Saraswati.

You cannot ride a car with Saraswati’s blessings, along with it you need Laxmi’s blessings too! For example wealth and riches. Without money you cannot buy cars. So to buy cars-houses-fridge- TV- Air conditioner etc, you need money and hence Laxmi’s blessings.

At present daily life, the rile of Bank is similar to the Laxmi. They give one loan to buy cars. Respected Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhit said that car is luxury, but the powerful and courages middle income group thinks that now car is a daily necessity. The higher middle class who have ability, they buy cars. They need cars to go to work, send kids to school-college-university, to take their close sick relatives to hospital at night or to take a ride out of city at the end of the week - are some reasons why the middle income group doesn’t think of cars as a luxury but rather a necessity.

The educated middle class loves to dream. They dream of a nice lifestyle, a calm and happy world. The dream also consists of a small car, a small house. They struggle a lot to fulfill these small dreams, and the happiness they get when they can reach their goals are incomparable. They do not do any illegal activity to complete their dreams, they do not risk their integrity to get the cars, they do not harm anyone for their benefits. The middle class are social, cultural and humane. They cannot afford cars and houses as a luxury. So as I have said before, to overcome this, the modern Laxmi (the banks) are a prime zone. But if the car prices increase, the educated middle class probably cannot dream of affording a car. They cannot manage even if the modern banks give them some loans. The present budget has already derstroyed their hopes of getting a car pretty clearly.

It is true that the middle class of Dhaka believes that cars are not a luxury but a necessity. There is not a single comfortable bus service in the city, no taxicab and CNG in large amounts. The behaviors of the taxi/cng are unbearable.

Sometimes all these bring in trouble for them. The city has expanded and to go to far away places, overcoming the traffic is a problem. Taxicab, Scooter, Rickshaw, etc fares are so big that it surpusses anything considered normal. The middle class cannot afford to spend as much as they want – their income source is limited. They are happy only if they can buy a reconditioned car with the bank loan provided. So just for their needs, they collect money save it up bit by bit to buy their dream car. But the present budget has shown clear signs that car prices will increase. This is my request to the government – that they reconsider before increasing the prices of a low CC car. Those who want to buy a huge car of greater CC, they won’t fret even after buying a car for over a crore. Even after paying taxes they won’t fret. The rich do not have money problem.

Before the budget, in the meeting with car resellers, they finance minister mentioned cars as a luxury item and within miniutes the letters for selling cars piled up. Many cars were sold for a really high price. The price kept on increasing hourly. Even then the tax rate over the cars were not decided. In 11th June when the finance minister proposed the budget, Jugantor mentioned that a ship arrived at Chittagong Bay with more than 1800 cars. I assume most of the buyers are middle income group. It is thought that if the budget on car is not reconsidered, the prices would increase sever lakhs. This won’t be affordable to the middle income group and they have to skip their dreams of having a car.