VIC: Petrol price vigilance required from autoclubs and ACCC

AAP General News (Australia)
08-08-1999
VIC: Petrol price vigilance required from autoclubs and ACCC

MELBOURNE, Aug 8 AAP - Responsibility for monitoring petrol prices for possible
profiteering lay with Australia's auto clubs as well as with the national consumer watchdog,
the RACV said today.

"The RACV would expect the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) to keep an
eye on profiteering in Australia," RACV spokesman David Cumming said.

But he said it was also up to auto clubs such as the RACV to highlight examples of
suspected profiteering.

To that end, petrol prices at 100 outlets across Australia were monitored weekly, with
results coming in each Friday, Mr Cumming told AAP.

Analysis of last week's prices - which in all but one capital city shot above 80 cents a
litre, before dropping back slightly in the face of competitive forces and public outcry -
would therefore take one to two weeks.

While wholesale prices were behind the general increase, the RACV suspected some
profiteering had occurred in metropolitan Melbourne during last week, Mr Cumming said.

He made the comments in response to a call by NRMA president Nicholas Whitlam earlier today
for the ACCC to investigate possible petrol profiteering following last week's petrol price
hike.

Oil companies blamed a doubling in the international crude oil price over the past two
months for the rise.

But consumer groups and politicians also pointed the finger at the big four of the
petroleum industry - Mobil, Shell, BP and Caltex - accusing them of profiteering.

Mr Whitlam said the increase in bowser prices had been as high as 10 cents a litre, with no
clear explanation for the hike.

"The price is an important issue for consumers, and for that reason the NRMA keenly
supports an investigation of recent price rises by the ACCC," he said.

But ACCC chairman Professor Allan Fels last week said there was virtually nothing that
could be done to rein in fuel prices, although he believed they had peaked.

He said the ACCC's main concern was possible collusion among the companies in setting
petrol prices.

State governments meanwhile have called for a federal inquiry into petrol prices.

AAP imc/arb

KEYWORD: PETROL RACV

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