Fuel price hike or duty cut on cards

Battered by the scaling crude prices globally, the Government is considering raising fuel prices or cutting duties in a bid to ease the pain of state oil firms. It hopes to agree a package next week, the petroleum minister Murli Deora said.

Deora on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss relief measures for the firms, which are forced to sell fuel at artificially low rates to protect the poor and fight inflation. “We hope to find a solution next week,” Deora told reporters.

“There were several alternatives which were discussed — an increase in prices, reducing import duties on crude and reducing (excise) duties on products. Government is considering all these,” he said.

The Indian crude basket has risen by 145 per cent since April 2004, but retail prices of petrol have gone up by just 29 per cent and those of diesel by 40 per cent.