THE country’s peak competition watchdog has conceded it strongly suspects petrol retailers of price gouging in regional areas such as Tamworth.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims made the admission yesterday when launching a new plan to tackle price inequality.
Mr Sims told ABC Radio’s AM program the “presumption is that there’s a bit of gouging going on” as falls in international prices were not being “properly passed on” to motorists.
The ACCC will use compulsory information gathering powers in an attempt to “uncover what is going on” within the petrol price chain that could explain the discrepancies.
It used the experience of Tamworth drivers – who in December paid an average of 25.3 cents per litre more than their capital-city counterparts – to justify the investigation.
“Motorists in our larger capital cities have ... seen the benefit of lower international prices, but consumers in a number of regional locations have not,” Mr Sims said.
“While lags are expected, as older stocks can take longer to run down in regional locations, we would expect the falls to be passed on reasonably quickly.”
Murray Chaplin, who in frustration at continued sky-high prices started the Tamworth and District Fuel Watch site before Christmas, welcomed the ACCC’s announcement.
He said there was “no justification” for Tamworth residents to be paying an average of 25.3c/L more for fuel than motorists in major metropolitan centres.
“The national average is an 18c/L gap (between cities and the bush) and we’re at 25.3c/L, so we’re on the higher end of the scale,” he said.
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall has campaigned hard for the ACCC to investigate the region’s fuel prices and said it was “about time” the watchdog got serious.
He said Armidale drivers, who pay some of the highest prices in the state, were being “ripped off blind” and had every right to be furious.
“We all know we’re always going to pay a bit more for fuel in the bush than in the metro areas – that’s one of the costs of living in the best part of NSW – but it’s the size of the difference that is at issue here,” he said.
“If you make an example out of two or three (distributors and retailers), I think the message will hit home and the others will fall into line.”
The ACCC will conduct detailed assessments of price trends in three regional centres this year, including the costs associated with fuel transport, storage and distribution.
While Tamworth and Armidale’s high prices are sure to make them candidates, the ACCC will not make public the locations for several months to prevent skewing “market behaviours”.