'Govt may slash fuel price, if oil, rupee stabilise'

New Delhi, Nov 12: Murli Deora, the Union Petroleum Minister on Wednesday, Nov 12 said the government may take into account slashing of domestic fuel prices if global crude prices and the rupee stabilise. ''We will review fuel prices once the rupee-dollar parity and crude oil stabilise,'' said Deora.

Earlier Deora had ruled out possibility of reducing fuel prices several times. The government raised fuel prices by only 10 pc in June when crude costs had soared. US crude has fallen to 59 dollars, down 60 pc from a record high of more than 147 dollars in July. While the decline in global crude oil prices had helped state-run Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum trim their losses on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene, the depreciating rupee against US dollar has wiped away some of the gains.

UNI