Petrol retailers are laughing at UK motorists after pocketing the vast majority of the Chancellor’s 5p fuel duty cut in April.
The RAC’s analysis found retailers' margins were 4p higher in April than they were in March, meaning they have taken the vast majority of the support to help us out in the cost-of-living crisis to feed their bulging bank accounts.
Yes, we can’t believe it either.
The support was brought in to help drivers with the forever increasing cost of fuel and although we slated the introduction of the duty cut, as it would barely scratch the surface when the price of filling up an average car is so high, we didn’t expect fuel stations to make the decision for us that we didn’t need it.
In its latest RAC Fuel Watch report, the company said major sellers, which buy fuel most frequently, also failed to pass on lower wholesale prices early in April to 'protect themselves from future rises'.
The RAC's fuel spokesman Simon Williams said retailers should have been quicker to pass on these savings when their costs dropped at the beginning of April.
“Instead, the biggest retailers, which buy fuel most frequently, held out and protected themselves from future rises,” he said.
“They will no doubt feel they were justified in not lowering their forecourt prices as wholesale costs are now rising again. It's also very much the case that retailers' margins were far higher in April than they were in March.”
And it looks like fuel prices will once again hit record highs as we head into June - just in time for the Platinum Jubilee. Wholesale prices surged by 5p a litre last week – a rise which takes two to three weeks to be passed on to us at the pumps.
Let us know what you think of this in the comments. Does anyone support the fuel stations for protecting themselves from rises?