With the assembly polls in major states concluding, the government may slash petrol price next week by Rs 10 a litre, diesel by Rs 3 per litre and domestic LPG by Rs 20 per cylinder in line with fall in global oil prices.
"Polling in Rajasthan will end today and with it electioneering in four major states. And so a revision in fuel prices is likely to be taken to the Cabinet at its next meeting scheduled on December 11," a government source said.
For the first time in three years, state-run Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are selling petrol at a profit of Rs 14.89 a litre and diesel at Rs 3.03 per litre.
But they continue to lose Rs 17.26 on sale of every litre of kerosene through public distribution system (PDS) and Rs 148.32 per 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder.
"The Congress-led coalition is keen on rolling back the Rs 5 a litre hike in petrol, Rs 3 per litre increase in diesel and Rs 50 per cylinder hike in LPG prices announced in June. As oil firms continue to make losses on LPG, some of the margins on petrol may be used to bring down the cooking fuel price," the source said.
Polling in Jammu & Kashmir -- one of the six states that went to elections -- would end on December 24. "When even Election Commission thought it appropriate to announce results of the elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram (on December 8) without waiting for polling in J&K, the government, too, is inclined to cut fuel prices," he said.
State-run oil firms have seen margins turning into positive zone from November 1, but the government did not want to revise prices as the Model Code of Conduct for elections was in place that bars it from making any announcement that could be seen as appeasing voters.
