Many discounted rates being offered by electricity and gas providers to switching customers have been cut since the start of the war on Iran with more deals set to disappear in the weeks ahead.
In addition, an umbrella group representing the motor fuel industry in Ireland has said any cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel may take days to be reflected in the price at the pumps and it cautioned motorists against queuing up for cheaper fuel early on Wednesday.
Minister for Finance Simon Harris is planning to cut excise duty on diesel by 20 cent and on petrol by 15 cent from midnight on Wednesday until the end of May.
While there have been no increases in standard unit prices of electricity and gas announced by domestic energy suppliers, the firms have been “tweaking” discounted rates offered to new customers with many of the best deals disappearing, said Daragh Cassidy of price comparison and switching website bonkers.ie.
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He said energy suppliers held off on making official price changes more than twice a year, but when the market was volatile “they tend to tweak their introductory offers first before making any wider price changes. And this is what we’ve seen over the past few weeks”.
Cassidy said there were still substantial discounts on offer from some suppliers to new customers. Others “have heavily reduced the discounts available to new customers and/or removed the welcome credit”. Some suppliers have also removed all their fixed energy deals.
“But the market is very much in a state of flux right now. Offers are being added and removed on an almost daily basis,” Cassidy said.
He said consumers who were out of contract should “look at switching as soon as possible as the remaining good offers may not be around for much longer”.
Separately, Fuels For Ireland chief executive Kevin McPartlan said that while excise duty changes could take effect immediately from a policy and regulatory perspective “their impact on retail fuel prices is not instantaneous across all service stations”.
He said the fuel sold at forecourts had been purchased in advance and was held in on-site storage tanks.
“Depending on the size of the forecourt, this fuel may remain in storage for hours or days. As a result, any reduction in excise duty will only be reflected in pump prices once stations begin selling fuel that has been delivered after the duty change has come into effect,” McPartlan said.
That means that larger stations that receive frequent deliveries may reflect price changes within hours while smaller or lower-volume stations, which receive deliveries less frequently, may take several days before the reduced costs are passed through.
He urged motorists preparing to fill up on Wednesday morning to be aware that the changes might not be reflected immediately and prices would fall progressively, not simultaneously.
McPartlan also said that since the start of the month retail prices for petrol had climbed by just over 25 cents a litre and diesel prices had gone up by 55 cents − whereas wholesale prices had climbed by 31 cents and 63.5 cents respectively. “This demonstrates that fuel retailers have not passed on all their increased input costs to motorists,” he said.
He said the Government tax take rose by €38 million in a week as a result of a surge in sales driven by consumer panic. But based on normal sales at today’s prices, the Government would collect an additional €26 million a week in VAT.
