A recent Australian Competition and Consumer Affairs report found retail petrol prices hit an eight-year high in February across Australia's five major cities.

TasCOSS chief executive Adrienne Picone said many Tasmanians were already struggling, particularly those on low incomes, or living in regional and rural areas.

"More and more what we're hearing is that people are just having to make really kind of insidious choices between eating, rationing the household energy or putting petrol in the car," she said.

Ms Picone said with the cost of living already out of reach for many, increased fuel prices would have a flow-on effect on all aspects of life.

"Going to the supermarket is going to cost more if petrol and diesel prices increase," she said.

"Everything's going to go up and I think it's just going to get harder and harder for people just to make ends meet."

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Council on the Ageing Tasmania chief executive Sue Leitch said that older Tasmanians, particularly those on pensions or looking for work, would also feel the pressure.

She said many older people were already making compromises, weighing up whether they could afford medications, and struggling to pay bills.

"The most common overdue bills include electricity and gas, mobile phones and vehicle registration. So those are the sorts of things that people are putting off paying if they're having to meet the costs of other things," she said.

"If you sort of cross reference that with increasing petrol prices, there's potential that people might not be going out as much as they would normally and older people are already at risk of social isolation.

"Social isolation is just as damaging to your health as heart disease."

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Disability consultant Jane Wardlaw said many people with disabilities were already poverty-stricken.

"[If] the skyrocketing petrol prices continue the way that they have it's going to have an impact on very basic things and the cost of living will continue to rise," she said.

Ms Wardlaw said those on NDIS plans received a nominal subsidy for transport, but that cap might need to be reviewed in light of the circumstances.

"To compensate for the rising petrol prices, I mean, that is perhaps going to have an impact right across the board when it comes to accessing goods and services or purchasing staple items such as food and groceries and so forth," she said.

An ACCC report released on Monday attributed soaring fuel prices to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, coupled with OPEC refusing to alleviate supply constraints. It also attributed it to an increased demand as COVID-19 restrictions lifted throughout the world.

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Premier Peter Gutwein wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison urging him to take measures to relieve Tasmanians of lofty fuel prices.

Mr Gutwein requested the federal government temporarily reduce the fuel excise, a flat sales tax on petrol and diesel, currently sitting at 44.2 cents per litre of fuel purchased.

According to the federal government, this excise is distributed into road infrastructure projects.

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey echoed the request, and also called for greater pressure on the ACCC to investigate fluctuating prices.

"I don't understand why fuel prices go up so quickly and go down so slowly as price fluctuates. There is something happening in our cycle here that we need to investigate again. The previous ACCC investigation did not cover anything," he said.

"It's just unaffordable for many Tasmanians at the moment to fill their tank up."

Mr Morrison said he would not announce any decisions to alleviate costs until the federal budget, on March 29.

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