Last top up before new tax kicks in

Supermarkets in Auckland are offering shoppers the chance to save heavily on petrol, but you’ll have to be quick.

Countdowngave a 45c per litre discount to customers who spent at least $200 at its Auckland stores. The promotion started at 1pm yesterday and lasts until 12 tonight.

Pak’nSave stores in the Auckland area offered the same deal, and New World, owned by Pak’nSave owners Foodstuffs, put up a 35 cent per litre discount with a $150 instore spend.

The offers started on the eve of Auckland Council’s regional fuel tax of 11.5 cents a litre, which began at midnight.

Money raised from the levy will help pay for a range of transport infrastructure in the Auckland region.

Even before the supermarkets began their promotions, many motorists lined up at petrol stations to fuel up before the fuel tax hike.

A line of cars stretched down the road at Titirangi’s Gull petrol station where regular 91 was selling for $1.99 and its diesel $1.28. According to the cheap-fuel-finding app Gaspy, it was the cheapest petrol around the city.

A long queue also formed at the Mobil service station on Sandringham Rd just after 1pm.

A worker at the station said they were expecting it to get even busier later in the day. The price of 91 octane was $2.09. The Mobil on Great South Rd, in Manurewa, said before 11am that they were “very busy”.

At the Gull station in Swanson, in West Auckland, a worker said its speed lane was getting busy and people were queuing up.

The Pak’nSave on Lincoln Rd, in Henderson, had a price of $2.09 for 91 fuel, slightly more expensive than the $2.06 at the BP in Birkenhead, North Shore.