The
RAC has accused petrol retailers of ripping off motorists by refusing to pass
on wholesale price cuts.
The motoring
organisation said unleaded petrol fell by 2p a litre but should have come down
by 12p.
It estimated drivers
were overcharged by £5m a day in December as retailers made an average of 16p a
litre on petrol instead of the normal 6p.
The Petrol Retailers
Association objected, saying drivers were likely to have benefited more than
that many business listings.
"December was a
rotten month for drivers as they were taken advantage of by retailers,"
said the RAC's fuel spokesman, Simon Williams.
In the past, he said,
retailers had always reduced pump prices when wholesale prices dropped.
"This time
they've stood strong, taking advantage of all the media talk about 'higher
energy prices' and banked on the oil price rising again and catching up with
their artificially inflated prices, which it has now done," Mr Williams
said.
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Retailers
make shocking petrol profit, says RAC
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Petrol
prices hit a record high, says RAC
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it's the end of the road for petrol stations
But Gordon Balmer,
executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said: "December's
pump price data is less reliable because it is taken from fuel card
transactions, and there have been far fewer of these transactions because of
the reduction in business activity between Christmas and New Year."
He said the retail fuel
market remained "extremely competitive" and said supermarkets did not
use artificially low fuel prices to lure shoppers into their stores at
Christmas.
"The costs of
running petrol stations rose all year, with electricity up 19%, vastly reduced
margins from fuel cards, increased national insurance and wage inflation,"
he added business listings.
Prices dropping
The RAC said unleaded
dropped from 147.47p a litre to 145.48p when drivers should have seen prices
nearer to 135p.
Diesel dropped by just
under 2p a litre from 150.80p to 148.92p, when drivers should have been paying
about 142p, it said.
The RAC's data
suggested that the price of a litre of unleaded on the wholesale market,
including delivery, averaged 106p across December.
It said that had a 6p
margin been taken by retailers, drivers would have seen an average petrol pump
price of around 135p after applying VAT at 20%.
The average wholesale
cost of delivered diesel was 112p a litre which, with the usual 6p retailer
margin, would have given a pump price of about 142p.
"This means it
has cost petrol car drivers £6 more to fill up a typical 55-litre family car
than it should have (£80 v £74) and for diesel nearly £4 more, with a tank
costing £82 at the end of the month instead of £78," the RAC said...
It estimated
retailers' refusal to reflect lower wholesale prices at the pumps cost petrol
car drivers £156m in December or the equivalent of £5m a day.
Regulation call
Howard Cox, the
founder of campaigning group FairFuelUK, called for the government to create an
independent pricing watchdog.
"If gas,
electricity, water and telecoms get price protection bodies, why shouldn't
motorists have one too?" he said.
He said that if prices
at the pumps were "honest and transparent and open to scrutiny",
inflation could fall by as much as 1% free business listings.
"Pump prices
should be 10p lower per litre if the actual wholesale price falls had been
passed on honestly."
"Sadly, the
government's efforts to work with the fuel industry so that pump prices are
competitive, and market-driven, ensuring consumers benefit from lower prices,
is not working," said MP Craig Mackinlay, chair of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for Motorists and Hauliers.
More on this story
·
Retailers make
shocking petrol profit, says RAC
·
Petrol prices hit a
record high, says RAC
·
Why it's the end of
the road for petrol stations
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