No relief in petrol prices in near future in C'garh

Raipur, June 6 (UNI) No relief from soaring petroleum prices is in sight in the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh in near future.

Following directions by BJP President Rajnath Singh to party-ruled states to cut down sales tax and other taxes to provide relief to people, a high-level meeting -- chaired by Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh -- was called last night.

However, the meeting concluded with heaping blames on the Centre.

After the meeting, Dr Singh said the Centre must provide relief to people from inflation and take some steps at national level.

The meeting decided that the government would keep its viewpoint strongly during a meeting to be convened by the Centre on June 16 for discussing about reducing sales tax and VAT.

Dr Singh hoped that a concrete decision would be taken during the meeting to be held in New Delhi.

Main Opposition Congress criticised the decision of the government to not reduce prices of petroleum with immediate effect.

Congress spokesperson Ameer Ali Farishta said the BJP was playing politics over price rise and not interested in providing relief to people.

He said the government must reduce taxes as done by Congress-ruled states to provide relief to people.

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