The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released it’s latest petrol monitoring report, stating that the average cost of petrol has increased by seven percent over the last three months.
According to the report, prices have hit a four-year high across Australia’s largest cities, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
The report stated that average prices had fallen across the cities between 2013-2014 and 2016-2017 financial years. However it said in 2017-2018, the average price of petrol increased overall by nearly 10 percent compared with the previous year.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims said: “The major factors driving higher prices were an increase in international crude oil and refined petrol prices, and a lower AUD-USD exchange rate”.
“The OPEC cartel, in particular, continues to have a damaging effect on Australian petrol prices. In late-2016 OPEC, and some other crude oil producing countries, agreed to cut production. This restricted supply into the market, which has clearly started to bite through steadily increasing petrol prices in the past financial year.”
“A weaker Aussie dollar has also increased costs for wholesalers buying petrol for the Australian market, which flows through to consumers who pay for this at the pump,” Mr Sims said.
The ACCC attributed higher global oil prices as a major factor, as well as gross margins obtained by Australian petrol retailers for every litre sold was also adding price pressure.
“Current gross retail margins in the five largest cities are now over 50 per cent above the 16 year average since the ACCC began tracking this data,” Mr Sims said.
More than the diesel the petrol variant is extremely VFM as compared to the competition. The top end Amaze and Dzire petrol costs 7.69L and 7.96L respectively, meaning the top end Ciaz petrol is just 50K more than the top end Amaze and just 23K more than the Dzire! If you compare with its chief competitor, the City top end model is priced at 11.89L, which is 2.7L more than the Ciaz”s new petrol model. If you compare the onroad prices, the difference would be more than 3L rupees! All these are ex showroom delhi prices. Considering the equipment list on even the lowest variant, I for one would easily choose the Ciaz petrol”s lowest variant over the Amaze and Dzire”s top end. Even the Ciaz petrol makes a case for itself, as the premium commanded by City just for the better performance is too high.