PRESSURE is growing for the Government to abandon plans for another hike in fuel duty due on April 1.

Petrol retailers renewed their call for the increase to be scrapped as motoring organisation the AA revealed today that pump prices are now rising at the highest rate for 10 years.

The average price for a litre of unleaded rose from 122.14p in mid-December to 128.27p in the middle of this month. The previous highest monthly petrol price rise in the last decade was the 5.6p a litre increase between May and June, 2008.

Diesel went up from an average of 126.19p a litre to 132.75p a litre. This 6.56p increase was just short of the highest previous-decade monthly increase of 6.8p a litre set in July, 2008.

The AA said that the 0.76p a litre increase in fuel duty at the beginning of this month and the VAT rise to 20% – adding about 2.5p more to the pump price – accounted for the lion’s share of the latest increases.

Chris Stern, of Paddock-based retailer CJ Stern (Oils) Ltd said lowest prices locally were 129.9p a litre for diesel and 126.9p a litre for unleaded.

But he said April 1 would bring another increase of 1p per litre plus the inflation rate – now standing at 3.7%.

Said Mr Stern: “There is a growing campaign to get the Government to withdraw its planned rise on April 1.

“The 1p rise plus inflation will be based on the February inflation figure and given the trend that could be 4%. That would add another 5p to the price of a litre of fuel.”