From correspondents in Delhi, India, 07:03 PM IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday demanded that the central government immediately slash the petrol and diesel prices after the fall in international crude prices.

'The oil prices are below US$50, which is almost one third of the peak time when the government raised oil prices four times. Why is the government not taking any steps to reduce the prices of petrol, kerosene and diesel,' BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters here.

'The prices of commodities should come down with the economic slowdown. But inflation is still at a high nine percent, which is unacceptable. The government should take steps to deal with it,' Jaitley said.

Accusing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of not doing enough to deal with the global economic downturn, Jaitley said: 'Unfortunately, the government is headed by a prime minister, who is an economist and still has not done anything to deal with the economic crisis'.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)