Close on heels of the steepest ever hike, petrol prices may be cut by Rs 1.50-1.80 early next month if current trend of softening in international oil prices continues, oil companies indicated today.u00a0

Worried over the political backlash, the government fielded chief executives of the state-owned oil companies to explain the compulsions that led to the Rs 7.54 a litre increase in petrol price, the third in a year but the first in almost seven months.