Tesco and Asda have slashed their petrol and diesel costs for customers after coming under fire for high costs.
The "big four" supermarkets, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, have been hit with criticism in recent weeks as some critics said they were not passing lower costs on to customers. They all failed to reduce their costs in line with falling wholesale prices since the record highs of early July.
However, on Friday last week, Asda took the first step to helping cut costs for customers. The retail giant announced that it had cut the cost of unleaded by 5p per litre and diesel by 3p per litre. It brought the cost of its petrol down to 174p a litre and diesel to 185p.
READ MORE: Petrol price cut for UK drivers among lowest in Europe, RAC claims
Yesterday, Tesco followed suit as it slashed petrol prices by 6.5p a litre and it cut diesel by 4.5p a litre. Ashwin Prasad, Tesco’s chief product officer said: “We hope that these price cuts will go some way to help.”
Sainsbury's told the PA news agency that it also plans to reduce prices, although they will vary because the supermarket prices fuel locally. Morrisons has also said it has been lowering prices this week and will be making more cuts on Saturday, although the supermarket will not be announcing a blanket cut. A spokesperson said: "We are continuing to lower our prices as we endeavour to be amongst the cheapest in the areas we operate."
But the AA said drivers are still paying over the odds to fill up as wholesale prices have fallen in the past week and suggested with the 5p VAT reduction the price could be 165p. RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: “The reductions so far are too little and too late, given the massive wholesale price drops retailers have been benefiting from for nearly two months.”
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