Under pressure from the Opposition parties over the petrol price issue, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has asked the Union Government to do away with the cesses on petrol and diesel.
He said he would organise dharnas demanding the Centre to completely withdraw the cesses and reduce the petrol and diesel prices further.
He said there is no question of the State government reducing the prices because it has not increased the prices, not even by a rupee in the last seven years.
Though the price of crude oil in international markets has not increased over the last few years, the Centre increased cesses, resulting in sharp increase in retail prices. The TRS president alleged that the rise in oil prices has, in turn, increased the prices of essential commodities.
After the Union Government reduced the prices of petrol and diesel, the Opposition parties have been asking the State Government to reduce the prices further to bring more relief to the people.
Alleging that the BJP Government at the Centre is responsible for the increase in the prices of petrol and diesel in the last seven years, he said the State Government has not increased the VAT (Value Added Tax) rate, while the Centre resorted to levying cesses to deny the States their rightful share in taxes.
“We have not increased the prices so there is no question of reducing the same,” he asserted.
“The price of petrol went up to ₹114 a litre from ₹77 seven years and the price of diesel went up to ₹107.40 from ₹68 when the BJP came to power in 2014. They went on increasing the prices despite the fact the prices of crude oil prices have not gone up,” he said.