PM Manmohan Singh on Monday hinted that there may not be any alternative to raising fuel prices, even as the government continued to grapple with working out a consensus on measures to tackle high global crude prices. A decision can possibly be taken only by Thursday after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs. "We cannot allow the subsidy bill to rise any further. Nor do we have the margin to fully insulate the consumer from the impact of world commodity and oil price inflation,' the PM said at Assocham's annual meeting here. "We cannot allow the subsidy bill to rise any further,' he said appealing political parties to adopt a wider consensus on the pricing issue. An agreement on the quantum of hike has elluded top policymakers in the government who have held several rounds of consultations through the last fortnight. Even UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has had several rounds of consultations with the PM and her senior party colleagues but in vain. The parleys have failed to reconcile the differences within the government, with oil minister Murli Deora pushing for duty reliefs to keep the quantum of hike low and FM P Chidambaram refusing to tinker with the tax structure. Signalling that the government was running out of options, Singh said the government could insulate poor people only "upto a point' and economic pricing of oil was essential to sustain growth. He said the government has not raised the price of kerosene in the past four years and LPG and diesel prices were "only marginally raised'. "Even petrolprices do not fully reflect the world trend...this situation cannot continue forever.' Referring to the high inflation rate, which rose to 8.1% of GDP in the week ended May 17 from 7.82% in the previous week, Singh said the government is focused on "reversing the recent surge in the headline inflation rate'. "It has been our endeavour to tame inflationary expectations without hurting the rhythm of the growth process and also to protect the weaker sections against rising prices,' Singh said. Expressing confidence on the measures taken by the government, the PM said the "mix of policies we have adopted will yield results once the full impact of normal monsoon is felt'. With the daily losses being suffered by the three state-run oil marketing companies rising to Rs 650 crore, they are looking at ending the fiscal with a total loss of Rs 225,040 crore if pump prices are not revised. While IndianOil has money to buy crude till September, funds of sister companies Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum could be exhausted by July. At current global oil prices, India's oil subsidy bill may shoot up three times to 2.2% of the GDP this year. Under the circumstances, the oil ministry is proposing several measures