Petrol Stations Slammed For Raising Prices Hours After 5p Duty Cut

A number of drivers are reportedly paying more for fuel today, 24 March, than they did yesterday, despite chancellor Rishi Sunak confirming a 5p-a-litre cut on fuel duty.

Announced yesterday, the cut means drivers will pay 52.92p in tax for every litre of fuel they buy from 6.00pm yesterday to March next year.

Sunak said the move was 'the biggest cut to all fuel duty rates ever.'

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However, the RAC said the cut will only take prices 'back to where they were just over a week ago'.

Taking into account VAT at 20% on top of fuel duty, drivers will likely be paying 6p less per litre under the new cut.

However, many drivers are reporting paying the same for petrol today as yesterday, with incidents of some areas charging more, the Mirror reports.

One such instance was an Esso in Brighton, which was said to be charging 166.9p a litre today, the same price they were charging for unleaded petrol yesterday.

Meanwhile, the same station was charging 184.9p a litre for diesel, which is 5p more than the previous day.

Some people took to Twitter to air their frustrations, with one user writing: "At this rate, fuel will most certainly hit £2/ltr by the end of the month! However, of the £2/ltr, £1.30 or 65% wld have been UK govt tax & nothing to do with #Russia #PetrolPrice. At £1.55/Ltr, UK motorists pay just under £7/gallon of which £4.55 is tax & excise duty, outrageous!"

Meanwhile, another added: "WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THESE F#CKING PETROL PRICESUK Govement wtf are you doing? #PetrolPrice #petrol #PetrolDieselPriceHike #PetrolDieselPrice #government #debt #money'.

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A spokesperson for Esso told LADbible: "We are aware of the Government announcement yesterday regarding a reduction in fuel duty and will be taking this into consideration as part of our usual pricing process.

"We can only comment about fuel prices at the 197 Esso Tesco Alliance service stations where Esso control the price of fuel - the remaining 1,000 Esso-branded service stations are owned and operated independently - and fuel prices at those sites are set independently by the companies that own and operate those sites.

"Customers are knowledgeable and selective and we price our Esso Tesco Alliance sites competitively."

Petrol prices have continued to rise in recent weeks, but the rise isn't just in the UK, after a number of countries including the UK and US announced bans on Russian oil.

The sanctions came in response to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February.

Booker did not immediately respond when contacted by LADbible for a comment.