Asda petrol and diesel drivers have been warned over the large discrepancy in costs at the pump amid the Cost of Living crisis. Buying petrol at an Asda-run forecourt – anywhere apart from on the motorway – can vary by as much as 18p a litre, which is the highest of any supermarket. The difference across all Tesco forecourts is the smallest at just 7p a litre.
For diesel, the gap between Asda ’s low and high prices off motorways is 21p, with its rivals having a difference of around 13p, new research from the RAC has found. The RAC has also discovered that Asda, which operates 665 forecourts – around half of which are at their supermarket stores – only provided pump prices to the Competition and Markets Authority voluntary data scheme on 12 days in July, giving it the worst compliance record of the 14 participating retailers. READ MORE DWP could make Pension Credit 'automatic' for state pensioners The three other supermarkets submitted data every day in July as did BP, Shell and the Motor Fuel Group, which operates some 1,200 sites.
Retailers Ascona Group, which runs 61 forecourts under a variety of fuel brands, and SGN, which has 102, were the only others not to have a 100% record, supplying data 25 and 22 times out of the 31 days of the month respectively. The RAC's Simon Williams said: “The introduction of the Government’s Pumpwatch scheme can’t come soon enough, and neither can the setting up of the official price monitoring body, so long as the latter has the power to clamp down on retailers who consistently overcharge.” “With our analysis clearly showing margins are still significantly above the long-term average, it seems like nothing has changed and drivers continue to lose out despite all the ongoing scrutiny from the CMA and the Government," he went on to say.
.
