New Delhi: Petrol prices may fall by next week. RS Butola, the Chairman of Indian Oil Company (IOC), India’s largest fuel retailer says that oil companies will cut petrol prices by November 16 as long as the global trend of falling gasoline prices continues.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Mr Butola says that oil companies are committed to passing on any benefit from lower prices to consumers, even though oil marketing companies have already incurred a loss of around Rs. 2,500 crore on the sale of petrol this year. The IOC chairman said global gasoline prices were down from $125 to $115 per barrel and there wasn’t much volatility in the rupee anymore.

But as the politics of coalition played out, with the Trinamool Congress threatening to pull out of the UPA government if there was one more hike in prices of fuel products, Mr Butola also made clear that the state-owned oil companies had no directive from the government that there should be no more petrol price hikes.

The decision to increase petrol prices by Rs. 1.82 a litre last week provoked a confrontation with Mamata Banerjee, who is the biggest partner in the union government after the Congress. Ms Banerjee said her party was not consulted before the price hike. Her MPs met with the Prime Minister last evening to demand better coordination within the UPA. They say the Prime Minister saw their point of view.

The immediate crisis seemed to have been averted. The MPs did not furnish resignation letters and did not discuss a price rollback at the meeting with the Prime Minister. But in Delhi and in Kolkata, the Trinamool said that it would pull out of the government or its ministers would resign if there was another hike in fuel prices.