Click to play videoNew Delhi: With inflation at an all time high, price of essential goods are breaking all records. That force a restaurant owner and his homemaker wife to re-plan their kitchen budget around the Union Budget that's now a week away.
Entrepreneur Deepak Seth is in the business of producing gastronomical delights. As the owner of a restaurant in West Delhi, Deepak spends most of his time in the kitchen making sure that his naans are well baked, onions finely chopped and chicken blended with just the right spices.
But his passion for food is marred by escalating prices, which has virtually set his restaurant bill on fire.
“As of now the prices have already gone up. Vegetables, fruits, meat, chicken, LPG, oil, sugar all the ingredients that are required for cooking have fluctuated by 20-25 per cent,” said Deepak.
And he's not the only one in his family, his wife Poonam also feeling the heat.
“At the restaurant we can’t do anything but al home my budget goes haywire,” said Poonam.
A comparison between the prices of essential commodities in the last ten months is any homemaker's nightmare.
On an average the price of pulses has gone up by more than half, wheat by over 70 per cent and edible oil is dearer by 20 per cent.
Inflation officially is at an all time high. So the restaurant owner expects some relief from the coming budget.
“Fuel prices down, exports completely cut for wheat – so prices may come down some what...in the budget-this is what is expected. Which means that the price of cooking gas may not necessarily come down but will definitely not go up,” said Economist Jaytee Ghosh.
Recent measures like a ban on wheat exports and fuel price cut may ease matters somewhat.
But Whatever the Finance Minister has to offer this February end – Deepak's plan of action is making sure that his small business doesn't take a beating.
“Earlier we knew we could speculate what is going to be the hike and we used to plan our menus accordingly. But in 2006-07 everything has gone haywire. All our plans, all our budget formations didn’t work out because the prices which were expected…they have gone much beyond that and we couldn't hold,” said Deepak.
It’s called passing the pinch – and that exactly what many like Deepak may do after the budget. So for now its people you and I – who'll eventually pay the price of spiraling costs even outside our kitchens.
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