By NOEL MURPHY
SUPERMARKET fuel discounts of up to 40 cents a litre are discriminating heavily against many shoppers and should be banned, according to Geelong-based independent fuel retailer APCO.
Director Peter Anderson criticised a “duopoly” Coles and Woolworths were exploiting at the expense of shoppers who were of modest spending habits, motorists with smaller fuel tanks, pensioners and low-income consumers.
Independent petrol retailers across the country were closing down in response to predatory shopper dockets cutting bowser prices to less than wholesale fuel prices, he said.
“It’s disgraceful what they’ve been doing, they’ve got to be reeled in. There’s not one other country in world that would allow what’s happening here,” Mr Anderson told the Independent.
“It’s completely discriminatory. Someone with a big fuel tank can get $15 off but if you’ve got a smaller tank you only save $5.
“And how can any small business compete? It’s predatory pricing.
“The discounts have had a big impact on grocery prices, which have been going up and up.”
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been investigating fuel docket vouchers and is reportedly close to reaching a deal with Coles and Woolworths that would cap the discounts.
But Mr Anderson said any such arrangements would do nothing to remove the inherent discrimination of the system.
“I think it should be banned altogether. Capping it won’t do anything, it will still be unfair.”
Mr Anderson said competition in the petrol retail industry was dying as Coles and Woolies reaped the profits of their duopoly.
“We’ve seen the demise or sale of a lot of independents. In Western Australia, in Queenland from Sydney all the way across the top to Darwin – Oz Fuel, Matilda, Freedom … the independents are all gone.”
