The average loan amount of each family in Bangladesh was Tk 70,506 in 2022, up from Tk 37,743 in 2016, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data shared recently. One-third of households in Bangladesh are now in debt. This information has emerged in the latest household income-expenditure survey of BBS. According to the survey, 37 percent of the country’s households have taken loans or borrowed money last year. Read more: Bangladesh's literacy rate rises to 74 percent, poverty down by 5.6 percent: Survey During the survey – from January to December last year, an average of 37.03 percent of households reported taking loans or borrowing money. In the 2016 survey, 29.70 percent of the households were borrowing. As such, in 6 years, the borrowing of families in the country has increased by more than 7 percent. Last Wednesday, BBS published the preliminary results of Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2022. Read more: Bangladesh’s total labour force is 7.34 crore, 26.3 lakh are jobless: BBS More rural households in debt than in cities According to the BBS survey, more households in the villages are in debt than in cities. In rural areas, an average of 39.35 percent of families are in debt. In urban areas, this percentage is 32.11. In 2016, the average household debt in urban areas was 22.10 percent. And in rural areas that percentage was 32.70. Read more: Inflation rises to 9.33 percent in March, highest in 7 months In 2022, the number of households in debt increased by an average of 10 percent in urban areas, and by 6.5 percentage in rural areas, the BBS survey stated.

The High Court on Monday issued a rule questioning why the government's decision to not provide new gas connection in residential areas will not be declared illegal. The Court also asked why returning money instead of giving connections and the government's inactivity to provide connections in households will not be declared illegal. The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the rule during a hearing on a writ petition filed in this regard. READ: Won’t provide new gas connections to households: FM The bench asked the senior secretary of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Petrobangla Chairman, Managing Directors of Titas, Karnaphuli and Bakhrabad Gas to reply to the rule within next four weeks. Lawyer Md Wazi Ullah with Azim Uddin Patwary and Afroza Sultana appeared for the petitioner’s side at the hearing while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar stood for the state. On April 27, in the monthly coordination meeting of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division of the ministry the decision to return money after cross checking to those who submitted money through demand notes was taken as no new household gas connection to be provided anymore. On October 4, president of Chattogram Gas, Electricity and Water Consumer Unity Alamgir Nur, its secretary general AKM Waliullah Haque and consumer MD Nurul Alam filed a writ petition challenging this decision of the government. Petitioner’s lawyer Wazi Ullah said, according to law, the government is obligated to provide connection within a fixed time if money has been submitted through demand note for getting gas connection. READ: Illegal gas connections of 2,000 families disconnected Even after the determined time has passed, the consumers didn’t get a connection, rather a decision to return the money was taken which is illegal, he said. The HC in its rule today also questioned why directions to give gas connections to the petitioners will not be given, said lawyer Wazi Ullah.