Oil minister Murli Deora (right) with his deputy Jitin Prasada (centre) and petroleum secretary S. Sundareshan in New Delhi on Monday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, Feb. 1: Oil minister Murli Deora today said the government was open to a review of fuel prices based on the recommendations of an expert panel that are due this week.

However, Deora acknowledged that raising prices was a difficult option because of its adverse impact on the overall price situation.

The minister is meeting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow to seek more compensation for state-owned oil marketing firms who are suffering losses by selling petroleum products below cost.

Sources said there was a possibility of the panel, headed by former Planning Commission member Kirit Parikh, submitting its report as early as tomorrow. A member of the panel said they were meeting tomorrow to finalise the report but did not confirm whether they would submit the report.

Officials said a final call on the recommendations of the report would be taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after considering other factors such as inflation and political concerns.

“We are trying not to increase fuel prices. You know the government is very worried about the price rise. If, hypothetically, there is an increase in diesel prices of Rs 2, it will have a cascading effect on other commodities,” Deora said.

The RBI, in its monetary policy last week, had revised upwards its projection for inflation for this fiscal to 8.5 per cent from 6.5 per cent earlier.

Oil secretary S. Sundareshan said the government would soon decide on hiking the price of gas produced by ONGC and Oil India from fields given on a nomination basis. It is also planning to introduce a uniform gas-pricing policy for consumers.