Why have fuel prices not reduced at my local BP petrol station?

I drive a BMW M2 Competition and from new I have endeavoured to use BP Ultimate.

On 17 March I filled up at my local BP and paid £1.739 per litre.

I again filled up at the same location on 24 March, the day following the Chancellor's Spring Statement, when I was charged £1.759 per litre. I queried this amount as I had been expecting the 5p reduction in duty to have been applied. The response from the cashier was that this was due to the price that the fuel had been bought in at and if the reduction was applied they would be selling at a loss.

I am raising this with you as I am certain that if the fuel duty had been increased this would have been applied immediately. However it appears that reductions in prices are slow to be implemented.

I would appreciate your views/advice.

Asked on 27 March 2022 by Robert Lee

Answered by Sarah Tooze
Yes it's down to the individual fuel retailers to apply the 5p reduction. If they still have fuel bought at a higher price, as the cashier suggested, then they may choose not to apply the 5p reduction in fuel duty until they buy their next supply of fuel. The RAC warned about this happening shortly after the Chancellor's Spring Statement.

However, some major supermarkets have reduced fuel by the full amount. BP and Shell also say they have reduced fuel by the full amount at the stations in their network which they own.
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