The Indian government decided to defer a meeting with state-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) on deciding the level of petrol price hike to Wednesday.

The government's decision resulted a fall in share prices of the firms in the country. Shares of three state-run oil marketing companies fell 1.12% to 1.58% on th Bomaby Stock Exchange this morning at the time of reporting.

The government is believed to have not given an approval to the proposed hike of Rs. 2.10 - 2.13 per litre due to the parliamentary debacle last week and the impending polls in five states.

The Indian Oil Corporation shares were trading down 1.58% at Rs. 249, shares of HPCL fell 1.12% to Rs. 250.60 and BPCL was down 1.23% to Rs. 473.95. the shares fell as the BSE Sensex grew 1.99% to 15,826.54.

The oil companies were intending to increase the petrol price by about Rs. 2 per litre on Saturday. The rise will come amid continuing fall in the value of the rupee against the US dollar. The international price of gasoline has more or less remained the same since the last price hike. In order to compensate, the companies would need an increase of Rs. 1.78 per litre and after adding local sales tax or VAT, the hike is likely to be between Rs. 2.10 - 2.13 a litre.

The fall of the rupee to about Rs. 53 against the dollar is the major reason for the increase in the prices. The low value of the Indian currency has increased the price of imports. The companies are expected to review the prices today and decide the price of the petrol.

The oil firms during the previous review on December 15-16 had decided not to increase the price by about Re 1 per litre needed to align the prices with international trends. The companies had earlier reduced the price of petrol by Rs. 2.22 per litre from November 16 and by Rs. 0.78 per litre from December 1. Following the deregulation of pricing of petrol, the companies review international prices every fortnight and device on the petrol prices.