Mumbai: The group of ministers (GoM), which met to discuss price hike options proposed by the petroleum ministry today, concluded the meeting without arriving at a decision on the issue.

The GoM, headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, is understood to have deliberated upon various options for fuel price hike along with restructuring of duty slabs to limit the impact of rising global crude oil prices oil marketing firms.

"We have discussed some proposals. Some ministers were not present, so the meeting was inconclusive... We will meet again tomorrow or the day after," petroleum minister Murli Deora said after the meeting.

Railway minister Lalu Prasad, defence minister A K Antony and planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia failed to turn up for the meeting called to build a political consensus for fuel price hike.

The petroleum ministry suggest raising petrol price by Rs4 or Rs2 a litre and diesel by either Rs2 or Re1 per litre together with Rs50 hike in the 14.5-kg cylinder LPG price, and no hike in PDS kerosene prices, official sources said.

The hike proposed in LPG prices, is likely to be moderated to Rs20 per cylinder owing to sensitive nature of cooking fuel price, they said.

The hike in the prices of petrol and diesel is likely to be accompanied by a 2.5 per cent cut in customs duty on crude oil and petroleum products and a Re1 a litre excise duty reduction on petrol and diesel, sources pointed out.

Another option is a 5 per cent cut in customs duty on crude oil and petroleum products along with a Re1 a litre excise duty cut on petrol and diesel.

Reports, meanwhile, said the government is likely to hike prices of petrol and diesel by Rs4 and Rs2 per litre, respectively, as global crude oil prices continued to surge, hitting the revenues of domestic oil marketing companies.

Petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan had earlier hinted at a Rs4 hike in prices of petrol and a Rs2 increase in diesel prices.

The government had last increased petrol and diesel prices on June 6, 2006.

With the crude oil prices touching an all-time high, the three government-owned oil marketing companies - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum -  have projected a combined loss of Rs69,753 crore on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and PDS kerosene as the government has not allowed them to raise prices in line with the price of imported crude.

Petrol is being sold at a loss of Rs8.74 a litre, diesel at Rs9.92 per litre, kerosene Rs20.53 a litre and LPG at a loss of Rs256.35 per cylinder.