Thiruvananthapuram: With yet another petrol price hike of 35 paise per litre slapped on the people on Monday, Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan called on the Centre not to "torture" citizens in this manner.
He said that even when crude prices were falling, the benefit was not passed on to people, and instead with increase of additional excise duty imposed by the Centre, consumers were being made to pay high for fuel.
"The central government should stop torturing people like this," Satheesan added during an interview with a Malayalam channel.
The Congress leader also urged the Kerala state government to help citizens by providing a fuel subsidy.
Meanwhile, petrol price per litre has breached the Rs 100 mark across the state, with the 35 paise per litre increase.
Based on the increase in excise duty, the taxes levied on fuel by the state governments also go up, he said.
(Based on PTI feed)