The competition watchdog is working on a plan to reveal how much extra you should pay for fuel at servos outside the city. Picture: AFP

THE competition watchdog is working on a plan to reveal how much extra you should pay for fuel outside the city.

Using new data gathered in four in-depth regional studies, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims told News Corp Australia he hopes to publish early next year a “ready reckoner” showing the reasonable additional amount a motorist could expect to be charged in any given town.

Insights from investigating the fuel markets in Darwin, Launceston, Armidale and Cairns is telling the ACCC for the first time the extra costs retailers face for transport — and the effect of having lower sales volumes relative to city service stations.

Armed with this information, the watchdog will aim to produce “a ready reckoner of what fuel should cost you in various places,” Mr Sims said. “I’m not promising we will do it. I’m promising we will give it a go.”

The ACCC may be able to produce “bands” showing the premium that should apply on fuel. Picture: Matthew Lloyd/BloombergSource:Supplied

He said the ACCC may be able to produce “bands” showing the premium that should apply given how far the fuel has had to come from a terminal and how much fuel is sold in that market.

Across Australia, the gap between city and country prices has been decreasing, Mr Sims said. A reason for this, he said, was petrol retailers who gouged customers in any given location now faced the prospect of being the next target of a regional study.

Following the probes in Darwin and Launceston, motorists in both were getting a better deal, he said. The Armidale and Cairns studies have yet to be completed.

“People know if they stick out like the proverbial there’s a very good chance they will get called out,” Mr Sims said.

That wasn’t the case before the first of the regional studies — in Darwin — began early last year. At the end of 2014, the average regional price nationally was 17.5 cents per litre higher than in the five largest cities; by mid 2016 it was just 2.3c/L.

“That is very pleasing,” Mr Sims said.

The Australian Automobile Association would not comment, nor would the fuel sector’s lobby group, the Australian Institute of Petroleum.

As always seems the case with fuel, there is bad news.

Retailer margins are fat. In July, they were the biggest since at least as far back as 2010, AIP data shows. That was not an aberration, because in the year to June, retail margins were the highest on record, according to the ACCC.

And, while the retail margin has shrunk somewhat since July, there now appears to be gouging elsewhere in the supply chain. The difference between the wholesale price of petrol in Australia and the cost of importing that fuel is currently 5.5c/L greater than the average over the past year. For a motorist with a larger car, such as a Holden Commodore or Toyota Kluger, that adds nearly $4 a tank.

Another factor heading in the wrong director is the price of Tapis crude oil, which has risen about 10 per cent since late September. That increase is yet to be fully reflected at the bowser in Australia.

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