The RAC has accused supermarkets of "taking advantage" of motorists by failing to lower their petrol prices to reflect a drop in wholesale costs.
The motoring company said that drivers are still being charged "unnecessarily high" costs for fuel at the major supermarkets, with average prices currently standing at 161.0p per litre for petrol and 184.4p for diesel. This is only around 2p lower per litre than the average for all forecourts across the UK, whereas supermarkets typically charge about 3.5 per litre less than the UK average.
The RAC said that supermarkets' profit margins for petrol and diesel are around 15p per litre. It has previously called on the four major supermarkets to lower their pump prices, saying earlier this year that the gap between wholesale prices and what drivers are paying has widened to its largest in a decade.
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RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: "With many people struggling to put fuel in their cars, it’s very sad to see the biggest fuel retailers taking advantage of their customers by charging far higher prices than they should be. This is unfortunately a perfect example of prices falling like a feather, the opposite of them rocketing up as soon as the wholesale price rises significantly."
The RAC has repeated its advice to encourage motorists to "shop around" away from the major supermarkets, saying that smaller independent forecourts can often be found "offering more competitive prices". The company previously warned last month that a huge cut to oil production could drive up the price of petrol once again.
It comes after the Government's budget watchdog, The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), said that prices at the pump could rise by 12p a litre in the spring unless action is taken by the Government to extend the expiry date for the 5p-a-litre cut that was announced in last year's spring statement. Despite the move having the potential to impact millions of motorists amid the climbing cost of living, it was not mentioned in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's recent autumn statement.
A Treasury spokesperson said: "The 23% figure came from the OBR, not the Treasury. It is based on forecasts that are subject to change. We have not announced anything on fuel duty today - the existing 5p cut will remain in place until March 2023 (a tax cut which is worth £2.4bn), and final decisions on fuel duty rates will be made at the spring budget."
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