Tesco, Sainsbury’s, BP, Shell, and other petrol station owners have been accused of overcharging customers and failing to reduce fuel prices at the same rate that wholesale prices are falling, new research has found.
According to insurance company RAC, wholesale fuel prices have “fallen considerably” since mid-October, and the roadside cost of petrol and diesel decreased by 8p and 9p respectively in December.
At the moment, a litre of petrol costs an average of 151.06p and diesel 173.97p. However, the RAC noted that petrol should be being sold for 140p and diesel closer to 160p a litre.
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Therefore, this means petrol is being sold for 11p and diesel 14p higher than wholesale prices.
“On the face of it, December looks like it was a good month for drivers with 9p coming off at the pumps on top of November’s 6p, but there’s no question that the drop should have been far bigger given how far wholesale prices have come down,” said RAC fuel spokesperson, Simon Williams.
He added: “For weeks we’ve been calling on the big four supermarkets to cut their prices more substantially to give drivers a fairer deal when they fill up.
“Even though they have reduced their prices collectively by more than 10p a litre in December, they are still nowhere near where they should be given the scale of the drop in wholesale prices,” Williams commented.
The news comes as Asda decreased the cost of petrol across 320 UK filling stations last month, but the move should have happened “much sooner”, the RAC said.
