Dispense with free water and tissues and cut prices, consumers tell oil firms

Price cuts are preferable to free offers, oil companies were told yesterday.

The view was passed on to the companies after a Consumer Council study indicated retail prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) had not been reduced although import prices had fallen.

The study found while the average import price had been cut by 89 cents per kilogram from October last year, retail prices had not been reduced.

The retail price for LPG during the study was $8.35 per kg while the import price fell from $2.03 to $1.14.

'The absence of any price reduction for LPG points to a lack of competition in the retail supply and indicates prices might not be reasonable,' the council said in a report to the economic services panel.

Legislators criticised oil firms for operating as a pseudo cartel.