On alert ... Petrol companies have been put on notice by the corporate watchdog. Picture: Supplied.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims has criticised a “lack of robust competition” in the petrol market as unleaded prices fail to dip below one dollar a litre despite the lowest international oil prices in more than a decade.
“Clearly the market is not working as competitively as we would like it to,’’ Sims told The Australian.
He believes prices needed to be lowered further, retailers’ margins were 6 cents or 7 cents a litre too high and international refiners’ margins were 20 cents compared to the usual 7 cents a litre.
The price for regular unleaded petrol in Australia averaged at $1.20 a litre last week, which was unchanged from early January. This is despite a 23 per cent fall in the price of Brent oil to $US27.70 a barrel since the beginning of the year.
Rod Sims ... The ACCC Chairman has criticised a “lack of robust competition” in the petrol market. Picture: Adam SmithSource:News Corp Australia
NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury told The Australian one of the reasons motorists aren’t seeing a bigger petrol price fall is due to the decline in the value of the Australian dollar against the US dollar.
Australian Automobile Association chief executive Michael Bradley said the high cost of producing fuel was another reason petrol prices did not lower.
“For example, the federal government’s fuel excise makes up a large and growing proportion of what we pay for every litre,’’ Bradley said.
“However, our analysis shows the significant reduction in global oil prices has not yet flowed through to the bowser as it has done in the past. And therefore motorists are probably right to be confused about the prices they’re currently paying.”
Scott Morrison said it is expected that retailers will pass on lower world oil prices to motorists.
“I think all Australians would expect that if the global oil price is going down then petrol prices should also and they will be watching that. We have already seen I think quite a significant fall in petrol prices.”
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét