Fuel price hike: PM mum, panel unlikely to meet

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday remained ambiguous on the contentious fuel price hike issue, declining to specify whether or not the government would go for fuel price hike.

"You do not expect me to reveal what goes on in the Cabinet," he was quoted as saying by news agencies during his joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife the panel of ministers widely expected to propose the rise in prices of petrol and diesel may not meet this week, a source at the oil ministry said on Monday.

India caps prices of widely consumed fuels to help fight inflation and protect the poor.

But with state-run oil firms losing million of dollars a day as global crude CLc1 prices roared to historic highs in recent months - topping $100 a barrel - the government has been under pressure to raise retail prices or revise duties.

The panel, which is headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, failed to take a decision at a meeting last week and there had been suggestions it would meet again at the weekend or early this week.

That is now unlikely, said the oil ministry official, who could not be named, with Oil Minister Murli Deora due to fly abroad to promote India's latest auction of oil and gas assets.

"The minister will leave for overseas ... tomorrow and will be coming back on the 27th," the official, closely involved in the ministry's day to day operations, said.

A string of high profile visits by foreign leaders, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, had also complicated things, he said.

India has not raised prices of petrol and diesel for more than 18 months, and officials have said any increase now -- which carries significant political risk with state and national polls due this year and next -- would be minimal.

Any rise would also add to inflationary pressures in Asia's third-largest economy.

India's crude basket has risen by about 170 per cent since April 2004, jumping from $32.37 a barrel to $87.17 last week, but retail prices of petrol have gone up by just 29 per cent and those of diesel by 40 per cent.