Supermarkets cut fuel prices to 99.9p per litre

Supermarket fuel providers have cut petrol and diesel prices to under £1 per litre.

Asda announced yesterday that it had dropped its prices to 99.9p a litre, prompting matching cuts by Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Tesco.

While [a herf="http://www.asda-press.co.uk/pressrelease/306" target="_blank"]Asda cut petrol and diesel prices to 99.9p per litre across all its 176 forecourts, the other supermarkets have said that their petrol prices will vary depending on local competition, starting from as low as 99.9p.

The average cost of unleaded petrol on 9 July was 103.8p per litre, with diesel at 105.1p a litre, according to [url=http://www.petrolprices.com/PetrolPrices.com] target="_blank".

However, the target="_blank"Road Haulage Association (RHA) said that, despite recent drops in oil prices, "hauliers are still paying more for fuel than their European counterparts due to the extortionate rate of fuel duty, which currently represents over half the price of a litre".

RHA chief executive Geoff Dunning said:. "We are calling on the Government to help us: when they reduced VAT, they increased fuel duty, so that the motorist saw no increase in price, but the haulage industry'’s costs increased.

"Without a haulage industry the supermarket shelves will be empty. Surely this will make the Chancellor reconsider his plans to increase fuel duty by yet another 2 pence per litre in the autumn."