ARE you wondering why the sudden increase in fuel prices, when the global barrel price is dropping faster than the rain?
It's Easter again and prices are at a premium for motorists who are planning a getaway. Fortune favours the brave and arrogant.
Oil rich nations, like USA, are super-sensitive to any increase, with public outcry over the slightest gain.
The tradition with our fuel companies is to profiteer at premium holiday periods, regardless.
It shows that the price of fuel here has little or nothing to do with global prices, but is based on demand and supply.
It has slowly gone from the low dollar prices at the lowest of the cycles, to $135.9 in the past fortnight.
It is an unconscionable move to exploit the goodwill and generosity of the holiday, with no thought for the social consequences.
This is exploitation with impunity. Motorists who rely on fuel at regular periods, who travel long distances at long weekends, are subject to the market.
Global oil continues to hover round the $50 a barrel mark. It is half the price it was 12 months ago, when fuel was $1.60 a litre.
Now diesel is cheaper than unleaded, an anomaly without explanation. Half of $1.60 is 80 cents.
Why isn't this rort addressed by the ACCC, the government body which scrutinises all business suspected of profiteering? Is it merely an enigma to be solved, or dissolved for all the good it does?
Why is it impotent? Because the biggest gain is the GST and excise element connected to the higher price, handing both struggling state and federal governments a nice tax profit.
Motorists are sitting ducks, especially those subject to long distance motoring.
All goods and services are subject to the higher fuel price and passed on with any increase, automatically, to the public yet again.
Happy Easter. For those who are financially challenged, travel is not an option. The cost of motoring is becoming a luxury.
E. Rowe, Marcoola
