The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today issued its report on movements in the price of unleaded petrol, diesel and auto liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the first three months of the new tax system.
The analysis showed that price movements from the week ended June 30 to the week ended September 29 for diesel were:
- average diesel prices in the capitals increased in the range of 12.7 cpl for Hobart to 18.1 cpl for Melbourne, with the average increase being 16.9 cpl
- average diesel prices in country areas increased in the range of 14.9 cpl for Tasmania to 17.3 cpl for Western Australia, with the average increase being 16.1 cpl.
"As consumers will be well aware fuel prices are quite volatile. This means that price movements needed to be assessed over an extended period to determine the effect of the underlying factors on price movements," ACCC chairman, Professor Allan Fels, says.
"These factors include international price movement, the Australian/US dollar exchange rate, federal and state/territory excise and taxes and discounting in the market.
"All of these factors have had an effect on fuel prices in the September quarter, especially rises in international prices together with the fall in the value of the Australian dollar," he says.
"The ACCC has assessed the cost savings that the oil companies could expect from the New Tax System and concluded that cost savings of up to 1.6cpl were possible but the timing of these savings is uncertain, largely due to the dollar's volatility.
"It is difficult to exactly break down the different components that have affected fuel prices in the review period. In the case of unleaded petrol and diesel, the ACCC has developed a retail import parity indicator against which actual price movements are assessed. This indicator takes account of the key underlying factors affecting unleaded petrol and diesel prices, including international prices, exchange rates and taxes.
"The ACCC concluded that over the September quarter actual diesel prices were below the retail import price indicator by 2.93 cpl for the five major metropolitan cities.
"The ACCC will continue to monitor and analyse movements in unleaded petrol, diesel and LPG prices across Australia," Fels says.