PETROL retailers are facing calls to be more transparent after prices at the pumps rose higher than in the UK.
Jersey Consumer Council chair Carl Walker said the price of fuel was contributing to the spiralling cost of living for Islanders – not just motorists – and that suppliers were quick to raise pump prices in line with changes to wholesale costs, but slow to pass on any drops in price.
The latest data from the RAC shows an average UK price for unleaded petrol of £1.52 per litre, a fall of almost 40 pence since a peak of £1.91 in early July.
However, this reduction has not been reflected in the Island as the pricecomparison.je website operated by the JCC shows current prices in Jersey ranging from £1.63 to £1.90. The price of the cheapest unleaded petrol in Jersey peaked at 179.9p per litre in mid-July, according to fuelwatch.je.
A petition lodged by Jon Best, of ATF Fuels, signed by more than 5,000 people last year called for a reduction of 2.5p per litre to help those hit by the cost-of-living crisis, but the government rejected the move, with Environment Minister Jonathan Renouf describing it as a ‘blunt tool’. Ministers favoured more targeted assistance to those suffering financially.
A report accompanying Deputy Renouf’s response stated that it was difficult to determine retailers’ profits as each company had different operating costs, but added that there was no evidence profits were excessive. The report also highlighted price differences between different retailers in Jersey that could result in a difference of £10 in the price of a tank of petrol.
A 9p reduction in fuel duty was one of the measures proposed by the Consumer Council during 2022 – now Mr Walker has renewed that call.
Mr Walker said: ‘Historically motorists have got used to Jersey being a low-duty Island, with signs at filling stations advising of the last chance to fill up before the ferry – but now it’s the other way round and those signs should be on the English side.’
He added that Islanders who may have used their cars less over the festive period would feel the pinch as they returned to work this week and resumed the school-run at the start of the spring term.
He said: ‘There is a perception that fuel prices don’t affect people who don’t drive, but in reality everyone’s affected – all the items on shelves in shops have had to be delivered, and the taxis, buses, fire engines and ambulances that we need all have to be fuelled.’
The main factor behind the fall in prices at UK filling stations, according to RAC data, is a corresponding drop in the price of delivered unleaded petrol from £1.55 on 1 June to £1.14 on 30 December.
Mr Walker added: ‘When wholesale prices rise, pump-prices rise almost immediately here, even though there’s a certain amount of fuel in storage, whereas when the price goes down, we seem to have to wait a lot longer for that reduction to be passed on.’
Mr Best said it was not realistic to think that retailers in Jersey could compete with their counterparts in the UK.
Duty was one factor in this, he explained, with the UK having cut the duty per litre from 58p to 53p per litre in March 2022, while motorists in Jersey were currently paying 64p.
‘The duty difference is rebalanced to some extent by VAT and GST [with 20% tax added to the UK price compared to only 5% in Jersey], but then there are also the costs of delivering fuel to Jersey,’ he said. ‘The difference in scale is also significant – Jersey’s total demand for road fuel is around 50 million litres, while ten large supermarket sites in the UK would have a similar volume.’
