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AN INDEPENDENT fuel retailer has defended Bendigo petrol prices after days of criticism highlighting significant differences between what country and metropolitan motorists are paying at the pump.
APCO Service Station director Peter Anderson, who oversees 24 Victorian sites including Kangaroo Flat and McIvor Highway, said he was "sick and tired of ill informed comments" about the fuel industry.
“It’s not easy when you hear comments like this, it’s frustrating," he said.
He was responding to calls by RACV manager Michael Case to drop the price of unleaded petrol in regional Victoria to reflect falling world oil prices.
City of Greater Bendigo mayor Peter Cox also said he would write to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to find out why Bendigo fuel prices were higher than Melbourne.
Fuel was sitting at 126.3 cents a litre at one Bendigo outlet on Tuesday, while prices in Melbourne varied between 112.7 cents and 114.9 cents a litre.
Mr Anderson said some of the comments made in response to RACV's call were misleading because Bendigo's prices had reduced.
"Since the (world) price drop, we've dropped our prices," he said.
"We've been continually dropping prices in Bendigo."
He said the comments were coming from those who did not know the costs involved in running a service station or have any investment in the industry.
"The RACV years have over the years been good at making these sorts of comments, but have no investment in the industry," he said.
"Do they have any skin in the game?"
Mr Anderson said Bendigo mayor Peter Cox's comments that he would go to the ACCC about higher prices in Greater Bendigo showed he didn't know what he was talking about.
He said Bendigo prices had dropped but conceded not as quickly as some would like to see.
He said the focus in recent days on fuel prices in Bendigo was unhelpful to motorists.
“It’s fueling the consumer with misinformation," he said.
Mr Anderson said the costs to run a service station were significant.
"I'm trying to keep my costs down in service stations," he said.
"When only dropping a couple of cents, I keep the advantage over my competitors.
"We've never had prices like this... I can't be stupid."
Mr Anderson acknowledged the public were seeing "huge discrepancies" which must be “frustrating'' but defended APCO's prices in Bendigo.
"I’m treading carefully in reducing prices very quickly as I don’t know how long the price of the barrel is going to be at this level," he said.
“Nobody can advise us of that, so within about five days I could quite easily be selling below cost."