Scrap excise duty hike, cut oil prices: Ramadoss

Chennai, March 14 (IANS) Former Union Minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, here on Saturday, demanded scrapping of the Rs 3 a litre excise duty hike on petrol and diesel by the central government.He also demanded the government to pass on the benefit of international decline in the crude oil prices to consumers at a time when the economy was not doing well.Ramadoss said after the fall in crude oil rates, the price of petrol and diesel should have reduced by Rs 25 per litre. He said owing to increase in the excise duty, the central government's revenue is expected to increase by Rs 39,000 crore a year.Ramadoss said the central government wanted to increase excise duty revenue from oil to Rs 4.5 lakh crore per year from the current Rs 3 lakh crore per year.
--IANS vj/pcj