Motoring body demands action on high Tasmanian petrol prices
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The Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania (RACT) is again demanding action as drivers continue to pay much higher petrol prices than interstate counterparts.
Fuel prices in Tasmania are now about 17 cents more than Victorian and in some regional areas the price difference is 20 cents.
RACT’s Member Assist general manager Darren Moody said the petrol retail margin between Tasmanians and the mainland was unacceptably high.
“We’re certainly well above the mark nationally at the moment,” he said.
“If you were to compare the prices to Victoria [that] at the moment are around $103.9 on average through Victoria and we’re looking at around about $1.20 a litre in Tasmania,” he said.
Last month the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released a report on the Launceston petrol market that showed the price gap between Tasmanian and interstate prices closed in the first six months this year.
But Mr Moody said in some parts of the country Tasmanians were paying up to 20 cents a litre higher.
“Well a little after a month of the ACCC report … we’ve again seen retail margins on the order of 18 to 20 cents a litre,” he said.
The RACT again called for greater transparency around petrol pricing in Tasmania.
Mr Moody said the organisation could no longer supply Tasmanian motorists with accurate fuel price information on its website because 40 per cent of fuel retailers no longer supplied fuel price data.
“We’re more calling on the Government to look at some form of legislation around price transparency around having to provide their prices to a government website and that website being provided to consumers so they can make an informed decision around petrol pricing.”
But Energy Minister Matthew Groom said the Government had no plans to legislate for price transparency.
“We don’t have a specific proposal in that regard but it’s important that people are abiding by the law and not taking advantage of Tasmanians,” he said.
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