CAR enthusiast Garry Kerr is at a loss to understand how Tasmania’s petrol prices can be so much higher, on average, than in mainland states.
After the Mercury’s front-page warning yesterday to motorists of an imminent price spike, Mr Kerr said he was already struggling to pursue his motoring pastime.
“It’s a little bit strange why there is such a big difference in Tasmania,” Mr Kerr said after his Citroen 2CV won first prize in the Aussie Frogs Car Club awards on Parliament House lawns.
“When you have to keep going back and forth to work, it does become a lot of money. I’m retired and it makes it pretty difficult to keep your hobby going.”
The RACT agrees that fuel prices are too high in the state, with spokesman Vince Taskunas saying Tasmanian motorists are paying 5c a litre too much at the bowser.
Mr Taskunas said it was a situation petrol companies could not justify and the ACCC’s petrol commissioner could not explain.
“We do think prices in Tasmania are too high,” he said. “The RACT has correspondence from the ACCC where they draw comparisons between average prices in Melbourne and Tasmania. The difference is over 10c per litre and we believe that the cost of getting the fuel into Hobart is only 5c a litre. Anything that is over the 5c per litre difference in comparison to Melbourne or Adelaide is unfair.”
Mr Taskunas said Tasmanian motorists were still waiting for a more competitive price, and the petrol commissioner had had little effect.
He said the commissioner’s response — to complaints by Tasmanian drivers that when the wholesale price of oil went down, petrol prices remained steady, but rocketed immediately after any rise in the cost of oil — had been “very general”.
Sourced from The Mercury
Well what a surprise (not) this is just another grab for cash in disguise as freight costs.
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