reference in fuel prices can “obliterate the competition” and have the opposite effect to that intended, said Wednesday in Parliament the President of the Competition Authority (CA). “We always have many reservations” about these prices, said António Ferreira Gomes.
“The PCA is not very favorable to the reference price because it believes can become focal points of pricing,” said Ferreira Gomes, when asked in economics committee on the publication of reference prices for road fuels .
About the need to approximate prices that have been published since the beginning of the year by the National Authority for the Fuel Market (TNGC) the sales prices to the public, Ferreira Gomes noted that it is precisely the fact that the published prices are wholesalers “that lowers the danger” of a price convergence. And although it has stressed that it is a matter of TNGC, considered still difficult the existence of “a single reference price in retail national level”, taking into account the very different realities in the country. Insist on it would “obliterate the competition”, he said.
Before, António Ferreira Gomes said hypermarkets “are an important source of competitive pressure” on the fuel market. According to the governor, the price difference between the fuel sold by oil and hypermarkets reaches 12 to 15 cents per liter.
António Ferreira Gomes emphasized that “the entry of supermarkets and hypermarkets in road fuel market allowed very important competition gains “for consumers. Since 2008, the share of retail oil companies such as Galp, BP or Cepsa not stopped falling. Was 80% and is now at 70%, he said.
On the other hand, the share of hypermarkets (in liters of fuel sold) rose from 12.5% to 22.5%. Hypermarkets brought “significant competition” to the fuel market, said the governor, noting that the licensing of such operators came from a recommendation of the Competition Authority in 2004.
President of the Competition Authority also considered that “the concept low cost has less to do with the type of fuel sold and more with the type of service “, with several stations of this type also sell so-called fuel premium .
Ferreira Gomes said that there is a great tendency to look only at the retail when analyzing the fuel market. But according to the regulator, even here there has been an increase in competition. It is also the wholesale level it is important to act. “Any favoring the possibility of fuel imports by third parties, other than oil”, introduce competitive advantages in the sector, he said.
President of the Competition Authority argues, therefore, that the guarantee of access to infrastructure transport infrastructure and storage by operators other than the big companies will be “structural measure” with more impact on the sector.
This is one of the measures that should be being addressed in the current law of the oil bases that the Government has in place.
Ferreira Gomes admits that this measure at the wholesale level can not have a very significant impact on consumer prices, but stressed that “not just look at the penny.” “If you think that this is a turnover and a cent per liter is equivalent to many millions,” think about “consumer as a whole”, “will always bring a positive reinforcement of competition,” he said.
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