Hong Kong authorities will issue weekly announcements about the changes in international and local fuel costs from April, following mounting suspicion that businesses are prematurely raising prices because of the United States-Israeli war on Iran.
The move announced on Saturday was welcomed by experts, although some said prices were ultimately out of the government’s hands and it should consider temporarily cutting the fuel tax if levels soared.
“We are currently collecting and organising data. Starting from April 1, we will release some comparison reports showing the trend of discounted prices from each fuel company in Hong Kong and international refined oil prices,” Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan told a radio programme.
“We will release this information to the public once a week, allowing residents to monitor oil price changes more accurately.”
Tse said the updates would allow residents to see whether fuel companies were raising prices too fast or acting too slowly to bring them back down again.
Hong Kong’s fuel is mainly supplied by mainland China, according to the minister.
