Only on Thursday, the GOM headed by the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee deliberated on the oil price revision issue and considered various options to bale out state-owned Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) hit by rising global crude oil prices.

But the meeting remained inconclusive as the GOM failed to arrive at any consensus on the quantum of hike in retail prices of mainly petrol and diesel, coupled with duty adjustments.

As two key members of the GOM, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will be away from the capital for the next two days, it is quite likely that the GOM might meet next Monday.

The Petroleum Ministry is  keen that the GOM meets next Tuesday for conducting overseas road-shows and auction oil blocs under the seventh round of NELP.

The GOM at its Thursday  meeting deliberated upon two sets of options for fuel price hike coupled with duty restructuring to limit the impact of rising global crude oil prices on state-owned OMCs. The first option proposed by the Petroleum Ministry, suggested that retail prices of petrol and diesel be hiked by Rs 4 and Rs 2 per litre respectively with 2.5 per cent cut in Customs duty on crude oil and petroleum products and Re 1 a litre of excise duty reduction on petrol and diesel.

As per the second option, prices of petrol and diesel could be hiked by Rs 2 and Re 1 per litre respectively, with 5 per cent cut in customs duty on crude oil and petroleum products coupled with Re 1 a litre reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel.

The GOM disapproved of any raise in PDS Kerosene prices.