Canberrans are paying the most for fuel of any capital city now that the Federal Government has removed the fuel excise discount.
But it’s a fluid situation, with petrol and diesel prices adjusting around the country to the new ‘back to normal’ structure.
It is expected to take a few days for the full impact of the changes to be felt at the bowser, with prices climbing further at service stations across the nation as the week progresses.
As of Monday morning (3 August), the average price of unleaded petrol in Canberra was $2.10 a litre, with diesel averaging $2.49 a litre.
That compares with Sydney, where motorists pay an average of $1.97 per litre for unleaded and $2.41 per litre for diesel.
The cheapest was in Perth, at $1.95 per litre for unleaded petrol and $2.38 per litre for diesel.
The fuel excise discount was introduced in April as a cost-of-living measure to help offset oil price surges due to the war in the Middle East.
It initially saved motorists 32 cents a litre, but was reduced to a 16 per cent discount in July.
The government has always said the discount would not last.
Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said on Monday that the initiative was a big help to households, but was always meant to be temporary.
“The three-month reduction in the excise by 32 cents was a really important measure that benefitted a whole range of people who were vulnerable to increases in the price of petrol and diesel,” he said.
“That included tradies in the outer suburbs, people who weren’t close to public transport, people in the regions, and it had a really positive impact in softening the impact for them.
“When we came to the end of the three months, we, as you know, had a one-month extension at a half rate, and that was an important way of tapering off that benefit.
“The benefit was always intended to be temporary, and so we’ve flagged right from the beginning that it was meant to help people with the worst of the impacts of that crisis, but that it would always at some point come off.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has written to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to urge them to be extra vigilant as fuel prices return to normal settings.
“Any price that can’t be explained will face serious scrutiny from the ACCC,” Dr Chalmers said.
“Servos and suppliers are on notice. The regulator will be watching them like a hawk, and they can’t use the return-to-normal settings with the excise as cover for treating motorists as mugs.
“We’ve jacked up the penalties for petrol stations that rip off Australians. They face multimillion-dollar fines if they break the law.”
The Treasurer said it was not Labor’s intention to bring the discount back, but the situation will be monitored and changed if necessary.
“Prices have come up a bit, but they are substantially lower than when we first introduced this excise relief,” he said.
“The excise relief has played a really important role in taking some of the edge off these cost of living pressures that have been turbocharged by a war in the Middle East.
“It was never intended to be permanent. It’s done a really important job, but we can’t afford to continue it forever.”
The Coalition isn’t too keen on returning the discount either, with acting opposition leader Jane Hume saying the government should have found offsets in the budget to pay for it “because reducing the fuel excise is an expensive exercise”.
“We supported them when they said that they were going to taper that back down.
“But again, we asked for offsets, and we even suggested offsets, but again, the government has resisted.”
Extracted in full from: https://region.com.au/fuel-excise-discount-is-gone-and-canberra-prices-now-the-highest-of-all-capital-cities/986466/
