PETROL PRICE RISES MUST BE TRANSPARENT - BROWN

New Zealand First has called on oil companies to publicly justify the recent round of petrol price increases.

Petrol prices have increased by about twenty cents a litre since late last year, and Energy spokesperson, Peter Brown, says with such big rises motorists are entitled to know the details of the calculations used to justify such hikes.

“These price increases are occurring more and more frequently with less and less warning. First the oil companies blamed world crude oil prices and now they are coupling these prices with the decreasing value of our dollar.

“This is cost plus pricing in disguise and appears to be an attempt by the oil companies to restore the margins that they once enjoyed when there was less competition.

“If the oil companies want to go down this track they should tell us the exact cost of crude oil, the value of the dollar they have forward cover for, and any change in retailers’ margins.

“That way the public can make their own calculations. At present they are simply being hit by price rises, seemingly at the whim of the oil companies, and it is starting to look like opportunism for quick profit,” concluded Peter Brown.

ENDS

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