Gov't seeks to limit fuel price hikes with new open price system

The government is seeking to require oil refineries to reveal prices of their supplies to gas stations, officials said Wednesday, a move that can show who is making how much from selling fuel. The move follows the government's failed efforts to cap recent hikes in fuel prices, which only led to the country's refineries and gas stations pointing fingers at each other and accusing the other side of making excessive profits. A government decree currently requires the country's refineries to reveal the amount of fuel they supply to retailers and individual gas stations and the total amount of money they receive from them every month, meaning the figures do not provide the price of each product for each seller. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced a revision to the decree that, when enacted, will require the refineries to regularly reveal the size and price of each shipment to each seller. "The government believes it will help ensure the people's right to know and also price transparency of oil products by expanding the scope of disclosure by refineries to their retail prices," the ministry said. The information is expected to reveal how much money the refineries are making and, by comparing it to the selling price for their customers, also expected to reveal how much profit individual gas stations make. Apart from the proposed revision, the ministry has been looking into the books of some 500 selected gas stations throughout the country to see if they are making excessive profits by unnecessarily raising their prices.