India's cabinet may increase fuel prices today, the Economic Times reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

India may also ask provincial governments to cap the sales tax on gasoline at 20 percent and at 10 percent on diesel to reduce the impact of higher prices, the report said.

The government is considering steps to alleviate fuel shortages and reduce refiners' losses, which now stand at $1 billion a week, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday. India imports 70 percent of the oil it needs.