After the cost of filling up a car reached record highs, Kwasi Kwarteng has entrusted the competition watchdog with conducting an ‘urgent’ examination of the fuel industry.
In a letter to the Competition and Markets Authority, the Business Secretary chastised the industry for failing to properly pass on the 5p fuel duty drop announced in March.
The cost of filling up a family car reached £100 for the first time last week. The RAC described it as a “really bad day for drivers,” calling the government’s 5p tax decrease “paltry.”
Mr Kwarteng writes to Dr Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s chief executive, expressing “widespread concern about the rapidity of the increase in pricing at the forecourt.”
Tory MPs have pressed Rishi Sunak to go above and above. ‘The Chancellor needs to limit the amount he plunders from us at the pumps,’ said former Cabinet Minister Sir John Redwood, who also urged for a ‘immediate drop in VAT on petrol and diesel.’
Last Monday, Harlow MP Robert Halfon asked for a further 10p reduction in fuel duty to 20p.
The watchdog has been tasked with making suggestions on how to improve competition in the retail fuel industry and customer price transparency.
Mr. Kwarteng has directed the CMA to submit its preliminary report to him by July 7. ‘It’s unfortunate that our £5 billion fuel tax decrease doesn’t seem to have been passed on everywhere,’ a Whitehall official said.