Treasurer Jim Chalmers will present extra steerage as gasoline firms and the company watchdog wrestle to implement his authorities’s new value cap.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission needs extra data on how the cap will work after some gasoline retailers stopped accepting new industrial and industrial prospects.
Companies are additionally letting expiring contracts fall onto costly default tariffs, as they haven’t been in a position to safe provides from producers.
But after the ACCC warned it’s going to examine producers if they think they aren’t offering gasoline the place they will, Dr Chalmers mentioned “guidance will be provided before long” if that was what the watchdog wants.
“We do need to remember this gas price cap, which is a substantial intervention in the market … only came in a few weeks ago,” he advised ABC TV on Tuesday.
“Inevitably over the Christmas period, as businesses try and negotiate new deals, that won’t just happen immediately, there will be some issues as we implement this gas price cap … the ACCC will provide the kind of guidance which some players in the market have been seeking.”
An ACCC spokesperson mentioned on Monday the fee would carefully monitor gasoline producers resulting from considerations the cap was disrupting provide talks with retailers.
“If we become aware that gas is not being made available and there is evidence that it was planned, or likely, to be available, or is being offered on terms which effectively equate to a refusal to supply, we will investigate whether that conduct may amount to an avoidance scheme,” they mentioned in a press release.
The treasurer mentioned the value cap, together with electrical energy aid presently being labored by means of with state and territory governments, would preserve payments down.
“These are all important, considered measures we’re putting in place which recognise the pressure families, pensioners, and businesses are under,” Dr Chalmers mentioned.
“Inevitably when you’re imposing a price cap on an important part of the economy, these gas companies are doing incredibly well on international markets, they would prefer there wasn’t a price cap obviously, but we need to do what’s right by the whole economy.”
Federal parliament was recalled earlier than Christmas to move the laws for the short-term gasoline value cap following an settlement by the prime minister and state and territory leaders at nationwide cupboard.
The value cap applies to new home wholesale gasoline contracts by producers on the east coast and got here into drive on December 23.
