HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today demanded reversion of petrol and diesel prices to those existing on August 2004.
Speaking to reporters here today, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu said crude oil per barrel now was what it was in August 2004 and that whereas the Union Government had reduced petrol and diesel prices by only Rs 5 and Rs 2 respectively, the August 2004 rates were Rs 41.29 and Rs 26.99 per litre.
The Government should cut prices correspondingly, he said, and foresaw crude oil prices eventually coming down to $25 per barrel. Should the Centre fail to do the needful, the TDP and likeminded parties would resort to a nationwide campaign, Naidu warned. Taxes on petrol and diesel were highest in Andhra Pradesh.
There was 61 per cent tax on petrol and 43 per cent on diesel, he elaborated. On the CAG report, Naidu said the State Government had failed to rectify the anomalies pointed out by it.
He recalled that during its watch the TDP government had constituted a committee to look into the findings of the CAG, and maintained that it had acted against erring officials.
The Mumbai terrorist attacks had seen politicians incur such public displeasure that ``politicians are ashamed of revealing that they are in politics,’’ Naidu remarked, and went on to blame the Congress for the degeneration in political standards.