You might be able to remember that once upon a time, the government announced a 5P fuel duty. However, there’s been some debate amongst the general public as to whether or not petrol stations are actually giving people the duty cuts or just simply pocketing the change for themselves. That is why the UK’s competition and markets authority, known as the CMA, is going to be investigating whether or not petrol stations actually did what they were told to do.
The investigation comes as a result of continuously rising fuel costs. On the 12th of June, it was recorded that the average petrol price in the UK passed 185p per litre. Average diesel prices were sitting at 193p per litre.
To put that into more reasonable prices, it means they cost more than £101 to fill an average 55-litre tank of petrol. This means that to fill up the average 55-litre tank with diesel, you’re looking at about £105.
As you can imagine, this has been problematic for both private users of vehicles and commercial vehicles, respectively. Everybody is feeling the pressure when it comes to the cost of fuel because it’s becoming rapidly unsustainable to keep refuelling your car on a regular basis.
The big problem with this situation is that depending on where you go and who you talk to, you get a different story. There are some people who claim that the fuel duty costs did impact the fuel industry and that the prices were always going to rise exponentially, and the fuel duty simply managed to slow them down a bit.
The petrol stations, obviously, continue to assert that they did pass the savings on to customers, but the bulk of the public isn’t too convinced of that. Many have correctly pointed out that even though prices were meant to either level off or go down in the wake of the fuel duty, they just continued to rise.
The investigation was probably inevitable and the best way of identifying what the real truth is. One thing that cannot be argued, however, is the fact that these fuel sources are finite, and as the supply continues to dwindle, the cost will go up so long as demand remains strong. Ultimately, it’s up to the government to continue to push alternative methods of transportation, like introducing more electric vehicles.
This investigation was probably inevitable. Despite the fact that the government introduced a fuel duty cut, we saw nothing but rising prices, which doesn’t make logical sense. Obviously, people have a right to ask if this was actually what was meant to happen or whether or not there was some foul play. Well, of course, everybody hopes that the fuel industry was honest about it, and the investigation will reveal any evidence to the contrary. The best thing that we can do is hope to wait for the results.