Petroleum minister Murli Deora and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee met on Sunday afternoon to discuss fuel price revision but food inflation fears kept the proposed fuel hike off the shore at least for now.

After his hour-long meeting with Mukherjee, Deora said, "No decision has been taken". Petroleum secretary S Sundareshan said the meeting was "about losses of oil marketers and the Kirit Parikh report"

The high food inflation rates as delayed any hike in fuel prices as the Prime Minister's office will wait till it starts moderating. The oil marketing companies IOC, HPCL and BPCL are incurring huge losses as at present petrol is being sold at a loss of Rs 4.72 a liter, diesel at Rs 2.33 per liter, kerosene at Rs 18.06 per liter and domestic LPG at a discount of Rs 287.59 per cylinder which entails raising the prices of diesel, petrol, kerosene and cooking gas by as much as Rs2 per liter, Rs3 per liter, Rs3 per liter and Rs50 per cylinder respectively.

The Kirit Parikh Committee had recommended total freeing of petrol and diesel prices and raising domestic LPG and kerosene prices by Rs 100 a cylinder and Rs 6 a liter, respectively. The government is facing protests from key allies in the ruling coalition, DMK and Trinamool Congress, the government is likely to fully compensate oil marketing companies for their under recoveries as a possible fuel hike looks unlikely with food inflation a cause of concern.