The oil marketing companies are likely to slash the petrol prices by up to Rs. 4 a litre from July 1. The trigger: The steep fall in global prices of crude oil as well as petrol on which the companies base the domestic prices every fortnight. The price cut will come as a big respite for the consumer after the recent increase of Rs. 7.54 a litre on May 23 — the highest so far.

But senior officials in the oil companies said the price cut would come only if the global petrol prices and the rupee-dollar exchange rates hold for the rest of this month.

The officials said the price cut could have been higher had the rupee not gone through a freefall against the dollar in recent times in the currency market.

With every one-dollar decline in global prices, the domestic price declines by around Rs. 0.34 a litre, while every one-rupee fall against the dollar leads to a price rise of 75-to-80 paise a litre.

The average global petrol price has come down to $99 a barrel from $115 at the time of the last price cut of Rs. 2.02 on June 2.