Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wrote to leading petrol retailers “to remind them of their responsibilities” to pass on tax breaks to drivers.
The letter, sent to fuel giants on Tuesday, follows allegations that some retailers have increased profits after cutting fuel tariffs by 5 pence a liter, applied by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in March to help motorists amid the crisis. the cost of living.
The RAC said retailers were earning an average profit of 2 pence per liter more than before the policy was introduced.
That comes after diesel prices hit a new high of 179.9 pence in the UK’s front yards on Monday, according to the Ministry of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This is up from 178.4 a year earlier.
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In his letter, Mr Quarteng said motorists were “rightly disappointed that the reduction in the Chancellor’s fuel duty did not appear to have been passed on to front yard prices in any visible or meaningful way”.
“It is also unacceptable that different places, even within the same retail chain, have very different prices,” added Mr Quarteng.
“That is why the Chancellor and I want to reiterate and reiterate our expectations that members are doing their best to ensure that drivers get a fair deal across the country.
The business secretary said his department staff had recently engaged the Competition and Markets Office on the issue as a result of “alleged intolerance to date”.
He said the regulator was “monitoring the situation closely”.
“I was confident that they would not hesitate to use their powers to act against petrol stations if there was evidence that they were violating competition or consumer laws,” he added.
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Earlier, Downing Street put renewed pressure on fuel giants to pass on tax breaks to drivers.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said: “The public is right to expect retailers and others in the supply chain to pass on the reduction in fuel tariffs to the front yards. This is the biggest reduction in all fuel rates and can mean big savings for families.
“We know that a number of retailers – large supermarkets, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s – are handing over the cuts and we will raise this with other petrol retailers.
“The business secretary will be writing to the industry again to remind them of their responsibilities here, so they should have no doubt about the need to make sure everyone passes on these cuts to the front yard.”
But Gordon Ballmer, executive director of the Gasoline Retailers Association, which represents independent front centers, said comparing pump prices to wholesale prices “only gives a partial picture” because it does not take into account “additional costs”, including delivery costs.
“Five pence per liter is not a significant enough reduction to ease the burden of rising prices on drivers,” he said.
“While the chancellor was announcing it, oil prices rose and virtually canceled the cut.
“In addition, sales of gasoline and diesel have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“Supermarkets and independent fuel retailers compete vigorously with each other at the lowest margins.”
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