Remote parts of Perthshire, Angus and the Mearns could benefit from petrol and diesel rebates.
Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander said the UK Government will attempt to extend the island fuel rebate but “it won’t be easy” to get European approval.
He also held out hope that other rural areas of Scotland may be brought into the scheme if it can be proved they suffer from consistently high fuel prices.
The scheme allows retailers of road fuel in the Hebrides, northern isles and the Clyde islands to register with HM Revenue and Customs to claim back 5p per litre relief on unleaded petrol and diesel.
Retailers in rural Tayside are among the near 1500 in 35 counties across the UK being consulted.
The Government wants to establish how many sellers had prices consistently similar to those on the islands during the last winter around 140p per litre for unleaded petrol and 148p for diesel.
Mr Alexander said: “The island fuel rebate provides much-needed help to keep down fuel prices in areas where costs of transporting fuel mean prices are much higher.
“I know that there are other remote rural areas of the UK with similarly high costs.
“So we are today starting to gather further evidence…to extend the island fuel duty discount scheme to very remote rural areas.
“We will need to prove that there are areas which are similar to the islands in terms of pump prices and distribution costs, so I would urge local areas that may qualify to provide the information we need to make the case as robust as possible.”