Service station operators across New South Wales will need to provide information to NSW Fair Trading by June 30 as part of reforms announced by the State Government in December 2015 to improve the regulation of the biofuels mandate and encourage greater competition in the retail fuel market.
NSW Fair Trading said it will use this information to help develop policy options to implement the reforms. Information such as service station location, trading hours and contact details will be used to register service stations for a new online price board.
Service stations are legally required to provide requested information under the legalisation. Failure to provide a complete and accurate return may be treated as an offence and heavy penalties apply. Fines of more than $5,500 may be imposed on individuals and corporations.
A spokesperson for NSW Fair Trading told C&I Week’s the State Government’s online price board, FuelCheck, is currently under development and is expected to be operational by mid-2016. FuelCheck will be a free online database of fuel prices at NSW service stations.
“By completing the data collection form, service station operators will also complete the first step to registering for the FuelCheck website,” the spokesperson said.
“Once FuelCheck is operational, service stations will have to provide price information that matches the current price of all fuel that is available for consumers to purchase.
“More information on how to upload prices to the FuelCheck website will be sent to service station operators once they have registered.”
Service station operators have to register for FuelCheck with NSW Fair Trading by July 14, 2016. Penalties may apply if service station operators fail to register by this date.
Operators responsible for multiple service stations have the option of reporting the requested data for all their service stations using a spreadsheet format, which is also available from the Fair Trading website.