Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday said the state government would write letters to both the oil companies and Union petroleum ministry to find out the reason behind the hike in prices of petroleum products on July 25 even as the state government in the past seven years had lowered the taxes levied on petrol, diesel, kerosene oil and LPG.

Modi said a high-level meeting was convened in this regard on Friday which was chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar. State commercial taxes department officials said at the meeting that they had approached the local officers of different oil companies seeking to know the reasons for raising the prices of diesel by Rs 1.70, of petrol by Rs 1.07, kerosene oil by 79 paise and LPG by Rs 9.50; however, the oil companies' officials had failed to give any satisfactory reply.

The officials of commercial taxes department said that raising prices of petroleum products in the state by different oil companies on the basis of state-specific costs and irrecoverable taxes could not be justified.

Oil companies' officials are also not able to specify the actual contribution of state taxes and operating and freight costs in the newly-effected price rise, Modi said.