Launceston’s peak industry body has urged more action and greater transparency for fuel pricing after the announcement of a new app on Saturday.
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The state government announced it would provide $60,000 to the RACT to support the crowd-sourced international app GasBuddy to provide Tasmanian specific fuel information.
Launceston Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jan Davis said it was time more action was taken to increase fuel transparency in the city.
“There’s been enough talk, now regulators must step in to address this market failure and to ensure fuel costs in Launceston are more reasonably aligned with those on the mainland,” she said.
GasBuddy is an international app that was crowd sourced and developed in the US in 2000. It has more than 60 million users in the US, Canada and Australia.
It is a free mobile app that provides public access to service station petrol prices sourced from consumer-submitted data to enable motorists to easily find timely and accurate fuel prices in their area, and also submit fuel price updates themselves.
Ms Davis said the announcement of the state government’s support for GasBuddy was welcomed.
“This is a great step forward and we congratulate the state government on its commitment to ensuring a more cost-competitive environment for northern Tasmanian businesses and consumers.”
Under the new measures petrol stations will also be required to display prices on their price boards that have not been discounted.
An ACCC report into the Launceston petrol market released last year found the city’s motorists paid on average about 12 cents per litre more for petrol than the motorists in Australia’s largest cities.
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