Remove additional charges on fuel, KTR to Centre

HYDERABAD: TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday demanded that the Centre cut excise and cess to bring the price of petrol and diesel to Rs 70 and Rs 60 per litre.

Addressing lorry owners at Manneguda, Rao said that crude oil prices had not risen but the cess and excise duties imposed by the Centre were making them expensive. "It is not just transporters who suffer as a consequence. Everyone does as increased transportation costs mean increase in prices," Rao said.

He said the TRS government had recognised the need to keep fuels affordable and had therefore not increased the value added tax on fuel.

"Today, Telangana has the maximum number of welfare schemes and programmes for the poor and deprived sections. We are taking care of the needs of workers and industrialists. We have solved the drinking water problem and through irrigation projects we have turned our fields into green productive lands," he said.