The government may have finally realised it can no longer 'hide' the rising fuel prices from consumers. Petrol and diesel prices have hit three-year highs in some cities yet there are no public protests.Not long ago, petrol and diesel price hikes used to trigger protests by opposition parties as well as common people. Not anymore. Not because no one cares, but because no one gets to feel the steep hikes. Since prices are being revised daily, even steep rise goes unnoticed.But now, with fuel prices hitting three-year highs, the government is wary that consumers would no longer ignore the steep hike. At Rs 79.48 a litre, petrol price in Mumbai has risen to August 2014 level. In Kolkata and Chennai, petrol is selling at three-year highs of Rs 61.37 and 61.84 a litre respectively. The government may ask the oil marketing companies (OMCs) to absorb further hike in oil prices due to check rising inflation. Shares of OMCs plunged up to 6 per cent in afternoon trade on Wednesday after ETNow reported the possible government move.However, Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government had no business to interfere in pricing by oil companies. He said dynamic fuel price mechanism was the most transparent model for consumers and the government could not change it on knee-jerk basis.Before June 15 this year, state oil companies used to fortnightly revise prices to align them with international rates and factor in currency fluctuation.The daily price revision means an instant transfer of a rise or decline in international oil price to the consumer.Earlier, when price changes were passed on only after a fortnight, sometimes fluctuations evened out within a fortnight without affecting prices at the petrol pumps.Daily revision in fuel prices means small changes in paisa which would hardly attract attention from people or the opposition parties. So far, consumers did not feel the pinch but such big price hikes in just two months have begun to catch attention now.