Deora to meet PM to decide on cutting petrol, diesel prices

New Delhi, Nov 28 (UNI) Within hours of Congress President Sonia Gandhi hinting at a downward revision of petrol and diesel prices, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora is slated to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a decision on the issue.

Mr Deora will meet Dr Singh at 2000 hrs, but any cut in the retail prices of petrol and diesel is likely to be announced formally in Parliament tomorrow, official sources said.

The Left and opposition parties have been pressuring the government for quite some time now to effect a cut of at least Rs 4 on petrol prices and Rs 2 on diesel as the international crude prices have slumped by more than 10 dollars a barrel from the peak of over 75 dollars.

Addressing a Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meeting, Ms Gandhi said she had discussed with Dr Singh the possibility of ''decreasing'' the prices of some of the petroleum products in the light of international prices of crude coming down a few weeks ago.

''Dr Singh had assured me then that he would look into the mattter. I am sure this is under active examination,'' she said, amid applause by the party MPs.

Prime Minister Singh was also present at the meeting.

Ms Gandhi said the government had not passed on to the consumer, at the time of the last hike in the retail prices, the entire burden of the rise in the international prices of crude.

Nevertheless, the hike was causing hardship to the people.

''This had been and is a matter of concern to the party,'' she said.

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