INTENSE scrutiny has heaped pressure on petrol stations to lower prices with Tenterfield dropping to become one of the cheapest places to fill up outside of the Sydney region.
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A wide push to get country prices closer to those in the city has seen prices in Tenterfield reach as low as 104.9 for unleaded fuel this week.
Plummeting prices fall on the back of stinging comments from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Chairman Rod Sims has been critical of some producers who have failed to budge on their pricing.
"I think we are able to put the producer on the spot in the way they have never been before," he said.
With the global oil price hitting a six-year low, reasons such as transferring and storing did not justify the current price discrepancies.
"There's no reason at all that the 35 cent reduction we've seen in international prices shouldn't get passed on in rural areas. And it looks as though it's been way too slow up until now,” he said.
Tenterfield’s Matilda’s service station has bucked the trend – in some cases charging nearly 15 cents a litre less then nearby competitors.
“We’re privately owned and are just trying to be competitive – that’s really the only reason why,” a spokesperson from the station said.
"If world prices drop, we drop."
- Matilda's Tenterfield spokesperson
“The oil price has dropped so it should be cheaper. If world prices drop, we drop.”
The spokesperson said they couldn’t say whether other nearby stations would follow suit.
Prices in surrounding regional centres hadn’t quite caught up, with Inverell, Armidale, Lismore and Tamworth still markedly higher.
Member for New England Barnaby Joyce said high prices were a "serious concern" in the electorate, adding that the "government has a role to play" in areas not open to market forces.
It’s been nearly a decade since prices fell below the magic $1 a litre mark and the National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA) says closer scrutiny of regional petrol pricing is long overdue.
"We don't want out retailers to be going broke. We want them to make a profit. But when they do things that are really way over the top, we just think that's grossly unfair," said Graham Blight, the NRMA's director for western NSW.
He said that regional consumers needed to be prepared to change their behaviour too.
"You've got to go and do things like, instead of buying from your traditional place of buying fuel, you might have to change and go and support the cheapest guy in the town.
