Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai gives ultimatum to DMK on fuel price cuts, says 'act in 72 hours'

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai on Sunday issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, threatening a protest if fuel and gas prices were not reduced.

K Annamali on Twitter wrote, "DMK Party had promised in their 2021 Assembly election manifesto of reducing petrol & diesel prices by Rs 5 & Rs 4 respectively & reduction of Rs 100 on gas cylinders Till now, as usual, both the promises remain un fulfilled. Our Hon PM Shri Narendra Modi is a doer."

Notably, DMK Party had promised in their 2021 Assembly election manifesto of reducing petrol and diesel prices by 5 and 4 respectively and reduction of 100 on Gas cylinders.

The BJP leader further stated that if the DMK government does not fulfil their promises within 72 hours, they [BJP] will march to the secretariat.

Yesterday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a cut in excise duty. A price reduction of Rs 8 and Rs 6 per litre was announced for petrol and diesel, respectively. This will reduce the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and of diesel by Rs 7 per litre.

Meanwhile, The Tamil Nadu government today described the Centre reducing taxes on petroleum products as 'partial' and said "it is neither fair nor reasonable to expect States to reduce their taxes."

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said the central government had never consulted states when it increased the taxes and that his state was already incurring loss of over Rs 1,000 crore due to the earlier tax cut announced by the union government in November 2021.