Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram claimed on Wednesday that the government has room to reduce the price of petrol by as much as Rs 25 a litre. His statement came even as the price was increased by around 30 paise a litre on Wednesday. The government has promised to act soon, but Wednesday was the 10th consecutive day that prices were increased.

“It is possible to cut up to Rs 25 per litre, but the government will not,” Chidambaram wrote on Twitter. “They will cheat the people by cutting price by Re 1 or Rs 2 per litre of petrol.”

The Congress leader said the government saves Rs 15 per litre of petrol because of the decline in prices of crude oil – this was an apparent reference to the fall in international prices in 2014, when Chidambaram’s Congress-led government was voted out of power. Prices of crude oil have risen steadily in recent weeks.

The other Rs 10 can be saved if the government does not levy that as tax on petrol, Chidambaram said. “Bonanza to central government is Rs 25 on every litre of petrol,” he claimed. “This money rightfully belongs to the average consumer.”

On Wednesday, the price of a litre of petrol in Mumbai touched Rs 84.99 while diesel cost Rs 72.76 in the city. The prices for Mumbai are the highest in the country. Petrol prices rose to Rs 77.17 a litre in Delhi, Rs 79.83 in Kolkata and Rs 80.11 in Chennai.

On May 20, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had promised a solution to rising petrol and diesel prices.

Fuel prices are likely to be cut by Rs 2 to Rs 4 in “the next few days”, unidentified officials in the Ministry of Finance told Hindustan Times on Tuesday. A decision will be made after discussions involving the Prime Minister’s Office, the Finance and Petroleum Ministries, and state-owned oil marketing companies, they said. The price cut would come from lower duties on fuels, while oil marketing companies may also have to share some burden, the officials said.

Steps are likely “this week”, another senior official told PTI. “We cannot rely on excise duty cut alone, although I am not ruling out a possibility of cutting excise duty,” said the official. “We have to be mindful of any fiscal impact of any excise cut on fuel.”

State-run oil companies resumed the dynamic pricing mechanism on May 14 after prices were stable for 19 days. Retail prices were frozen between April 24 and May 13 when campaigning was on for the Karnataka Assembly elections. International crude oil prices have risen in the period while the rupee has fallen against the United States dollar – both factors make the fuels costlier.