'Both Centre, TN govt should reduce tax percentage on petrol'

"The state government in Tamil Nadu gets 27 per cent tax from the petrol price. If the Centre and state governments reduce their tax percentage substantially on petrol, the recent hike will not affect the public," he said in a letter to his partymen.

The 88-year-old patriarch said the DMK agitation on May 30 was only to insist that the Centre and state governments, "instead of pretending to be worried over the hike, should themselves voluntarily come forward and reduce their share of tax on the petrol."

Listing out the recent increase in the prices of milk, bus fare and electricity tariff by the Jayalalithaa government since May last year, he said the DMK regime had never increased the prices of these commodities and services.