DOMINATION by the big two supermarkets and lack of competition in Canberra's petrol market is forcing motorists to pay higher prices at the petrol pump over the Christmas and new year period, despite major players being cleared of pushing up prices on holidays by the consumer watchdog.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Unleaded petrol prices in the ACT soared to almost $1.60 a litre at some Canberra service stations on Christmas Day, with BP Phillip selling regular unleaded petrol for 158.9c a litre.
Fuel price watch website Motormouth reported the average price for a litre of unleaded petrol in the ACT on Christmas Day was 145.1c, compared to the national average of 137.7c.
Darwin and Hobart were the only two capital cities to have higher prices than the ACT over Christmas.
Average unleaded petrol prices for Canberra were stable this past week, but are tipped to rise by about 1.5c per litre in the next week.
NRMA spokesman Alan Evans said lack of competition in Canberra's petrol market was to blame and that price hikes were a deliberate ploy by the big oil companies to cash in on school holidays, weekends and public holidays.
''People coming back to work, people still on holiday mode and maybe going down the coast, so they know that people are going to fill up their tanks so they make sure they get money out of our pockets,'' he said.
''More importantly I think we see that the lack of competition in Canberra means the two supermarket chains - the two oil companies associated with them - dominate the market in Canberra. Therefore, we pay for the fact there is no competition.''
But a recent report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission cleared the major supermarkets and oil companies of colluding on prices at the pump, despite lingering concerns of apparent coordination in price cycles by retailers. Commissioner Joe Dimasi said petrol accounted for about 4 per cent of the average family budget.
''It is not surprising then that the community is very interested in ensuring that petrol prices are as low as possible and that they reflect competitive forces,'' he said.
But the consumer watchdog's recent report on petrol prices found price movements around public holidays were not out of step with movements at other times, despite a public perception of profiteering by service stations on weekends and holidays.
''In part, the perception that price increases are unusually large just before holidays may be due to the operation of the generally regular weekly cycle,'' the report says.
''This often causes prices to rise either just before or on most weekends, not just holiday weekends.
''Price rises may be more noticeable before holiday weekends because a large number of motorists make long trips, using more petrol than usual.''
ACCC monitoring showed average national prices were about 8c per litre higher in 2010-11 than in 2009-10.
