Drivers hit by £6m a day petrol rip-off

Supermarkets don’t pass on price cuts

BRITAIN’S biggest supermarkets are today accused of failing to pass on the fall in fuel costs to their customers – despite repeated promises to slash prices.

The average price of petrol and diesel has barely budged, even though the wholesale cost retailers pay has fallen by 4p per litre in recent weeks, an AA report found.

If this had been passed on to motorists at supermarkets it would have taken £2 off the cost of filling up a typical 50-litre family car.

A separate study accuses the entire fuel industry of ‘fleecing’ motorists out of £6.6million a day by failing to pass on the falls in wholesale costs – equivalent to around £2.4billion a year in excess profits.

The AA said that despite a string of promises, prices on supermarket forecourts had fallen by only half a penny for a litre of petrol and less than a penny for diesel.

Some supermarkets had cut the price even less, with Sainsbury’s shaving just 0.07p off petrol and 0.16p off a litre of diesel, the report said.

Last night Luke Bosdet, from the motoring group, said: ‘As is so often the case, supermarket price wars prove to be a phoney. The term “up to” is sneaky shorthand for only dropping prices where they have to.’

Over the last two weeks, the oil price has dropped by 5 dollars a barrel, while the wholesale costs that retailers pay for fuel has fallen by around 4p.

Despite this, fuel prices at the pumps are currently at their highest level in more than three years. Over the past two years the cost of filling up a petrol car has risen by around £10, and £11 for a diesel – with both fuels averaging around 1.02p a litre in early 2016.

Last week, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – which have around 1,000 forecourts between them – pledged to cut prices by up to 2p a litre.

Tesco, which has just over 500 petrol stations, did not promise a price cut. But, today’s report, said the average price of petrol had barely budged following this round of ‘cuts’ – with petrol still at 121.60p a litre.

Asda – which is the only supermarket to offer a national price cap on fuel – has cut petrol by an average of just 0.17p and diesel by 0.66p. Morrisons has cut 1.03p off petrol prices and 0.85p off diesel. Last night, after being approached for comment by the Daily Mail, Sainsbury’s announced it would slash the price of unleaded again by up to 2p per litre and diesel by up to 1p per litre at its 311 forecourts.

Esso, Shell and BP branded forecourts, many of which will be owned by independent firms, have actually increased the price of fuel over the last month according to the AA.

A separate report from the pressure group FairFuelUK, has revealed that in the seven weeks since Christmas wholesale diesel prices have dropped 5.2p while the oil price has fallen almost 9 per cent. But pump prices have risen 0.7p.

This means 5.9 p – the equivalent of almost £3 on an average tank – has not been passed to drivers. Over the same period the wholesale price of petrol has dropped 2.3p, while petrol prices have risen 1.4p – meaning 3.7p per litre has not been passed on to drivers. Last night MPs called on the Competition & Markets Authority to step in to protect drivers.

But a CMA spokesman said: ‘The Competition and Markets Authority is not a price regulator – our role is to ensure competition works in the interest of consumers.’

Dave Tyrer from Asda said: ‘We are the only supermarket group to operate a price cap, which we have lowered further this week.

‘That means wherever you shop, customers will not pay more than 116.7p and 118.7p for unleaded and diesel.’

Richard Murrell, buying manager for Sainsbury’s, said: ‘This is second time we’ve cut the price of diesel and petrol in as many weeks, which is great news for all our customers.’

No one from Tesco was available for comment.

‘Phoney price war’