AHSAN HABIB

“Per capita income is the income that is not seen by mass people but built on a few people.”

A satirical outburst of anguish rather than a terminology, this comment was left by a reader in The Daily Star’s Facebook page yesterday on a news post which stated that provisional per capita income of Bangladesh had gone up 9 per cent to $2,824 in 2021-22.

Soon after the news was published, most readers started to repeatedly point out in the social media platform that this per capita income was in no way a reflection of their earnings.

Planning Minister MA Mannan said people were making purchases on a large scale in rural areas, which means that incomes had gone up for all.

It may be by a low percentage or high, but their income rose surely, he said while addressing a press briefing after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.

Shamsul Alam, state minister for planning, echoed him, saying long queues were commonplace at supermarket checkouts nowadays.

The village markets are no exception. Moreover, inflation is higher in rural areas because demand and buying power are high in those areas.

Wages also rose in the villages and even workers are scarcely available, he added.

While the government is resting on its laurels, people are seeing it as a mockery of their woes.

So, the question that naturally comes into mind is: why does such discrepancy prevail?

According to economists, the figure of the per capita income does not depict the real scenario afflicting the masses, with society plagued with high disparity and high prices.

As per the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the country’s Gini coefficient, which is the economic measure of equality, stood at 0.482 in 2016, up from 0.458 in 2010.

The Gini coefficient is measured on a scale of 0 to 1; the closer it is to 1, the higher the inequality in society.

Now, the Gini coefficient of Bangladesh is at an all-time high, which means that inequality in society is also at an all-time high.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, identified some flaws in the estimation of per capita income and GDP growth rate.

“First, there is an estimation problem. High estimates of GDP growth rate and per capita income are not supported by the real figures on the correlates and proxy indicators,” said Bhattacharya.