Fuel companies have been asked to explain why Perth's petrol prices are dropping quicker than those in regional areas.
The average price of ULP in Perth has dropped by more than 20 cents per litre since January.
But in areas in the South West, Mid West and Gascoyne, prices dropped by between seven and 12 cents.
The Kimberley saw the largest drop in regional WA of 18.7 cents per litre.
Nationals MP Colin Holt said fuel companies needed to explain why metropolitan prices were falling faster.
"If fuel prices are coming down in Perth, there's no reason why fuel prices shouldn't be coming down in regional Western Australia," he said.
"The freight prices add a little bit but in my view they're not significant."
Mr Holt said the higher prices were putting an extra burden on regional households.
"There's not a lot of public transport, you have to use your car to go to doctors appointments, visit friends, visit relatives, go to services, go to shops, there's just no other way around it," he said.
The RAC's Alex Forrest said there was a particularly big drop in the wholesale prices of fuel in August.
"That resulted in a bit of a follow on in Perth prices," he said.
"We haven't seen that follow on anywhere near as strongly in regional areas."
Mr Forrest said it was difficult to say whether the price difference should be attributed to retailers or market factors, but he said freight costs and reduced competition played a role.
"Where there have been reductions in freight costs or even the wholesale price of fuel, if those reductions aren't passed on then we'd certainly be asking questions," he said.
"We'd like to see some more regulatory control on fuel prices, particularly in WA where we are seeing these significant differences in fuel pricing between metro and regional areas."
The Motor Trade Association's Stephen Moir said retailers were not to blame for the price gap.
He said retailers operate off a terminal gate price, and then add their margins on top of that.
"A lot of the blame is directly pointed at retailers, and in fact should be directed back at the terminal gate," he said.
Mr Moir said there were a number of fixed costs associated with petrol, including government taxes and transport.
"What you're seeing there is the fact they need to get fuel from the wholesalers, from the terminals, out to regional areas and that is a large impost on cost," he said.
He said he expected fuel prices would keep falling throughout Western Australia in coming months.
Topics: retail, road-transport, perth-6000, broome-6725, geraldton-6530, karratha-6714, albany-6330, bunbury-6230View the original article here
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