THE NRMA has made a bold bid to lower Tamworth’s crippling fuel prices, calling on Coles to extend its $1 a litre promotion to the bush.
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The supermarket giant this week announced it would sell unleaded petrol in Sydney for 114c a litre until January 4, brought down to $1 with a Coles docket and more than $20 spent in store.
It comes as Tamworth motorists continue to pay among the highest price for petrol in the state.
On Christmas Eve, the average price at Tamworth was 145.4c/L, while Sydney drivers were paying an average of 116.5c/L.
The ACCC last week rejected calls to launch an investigation into Tamworth pricing, despite figures showing smaller surrounding centres with less competition, such as Walcha and Barraba, offered consistently lower prices.
A Northern Daily Leader poll overwhelmingly supported an ACCC probe, with 98.81 per cent of respondents backing it.
NRMA director Graham Blight said it was “preposterous” Sydney drivers were paying 30c less per litre for fuel than those in Tamworth.
“They’re just not fair dinkum, racking up 30c/L margins in regional towns like Tamworth,” Mr Blight said.
“If they’re making that margin on a product the price of which is openly advertised around the country, what are they doing to us on products in their shop? It’s a disgrace, and you don’t have to be a business graduate to see the preposterous margins they are making.”
He said with the terminal sale price at 112c/L in Sydney and freight costs about 3c/L, retailers were clearly profiteering.
“Even if they sold it at 125c/L in Tamworth, they’d be still making 10c a litre, which is extraordinary,” Mr Blight said.
“In anybody’s world, that is price-gouging.
“The people of Tamworth should just stop shopping at outlets charging the higher prices.”
He urged Coles, which runs two Coles Express outlets in Tamworth, to offer the cheap fuel offer here.
