More citizens will be reduced to poverty

A recent survey carried out by the Penang Hindu Association (PHA) shows a vast increase in prices of the essential cooking ingredients, namely tamarind, cumin seeds (jeragam), yellow lentil (toor dhal/tovarum parupu), black gram, cashew nuts, almonds, roasted gram (pottu kadal), gingerly oil (nalanei), curry powder (fish and chicken), onions, whole green gram, (pasipayeru), fennel (sombu/perunjeeragam) gram flour (kadalamavu), sago (jawarisi) and pappadam.