It's a question asked time and time again: why does the petrol at filling stations still cost so much despite drastic drops in international oil prices?
Explanations offered by oil companies have been homogeneous - because what they sell in Hong Kong is tied to Singapore rather than the global oil market.
That's interesting. Do the two mainland oil giants - PetroChina and Sinopec - providing petrol and gas here also rely on Singapore for supplies like the other major players?
If they really do, I can't help being blown away.
It didn't surprise me at all when the oil firms echoed one another to repeat the story after Consumer Council chief executive Gilly Wong Fung-han accused them in a fresh damning report of being quick to jack up, but slow to reduce pump prices.
How many people believe their alibi? There are bound to be some, but I'm sure they are not many.
The standard explanation touted by the duopoly simply defies good sense, for it implies that petroleum products from Singapore are totally unrelated to the global trend. This can't be true.
It isn't the first time the Consumer Council brought up the issue. Early last year, the watchdog similarly denounced the oil companies in another report. There are also a number of like reports in the public archives.
The council's unceasing efforts are commendable, although it has failed to strike further in each attempt.
It's high time for the Competition Commission, chaired by Executive Council member Anna Wu Hung-yuk, to take up the matter.
Wong was right in pointing out that only Wu's commission has the statutory authority to launch an official investigation into an oil market that isn't at all transparent to consumers.
Certainly, it would be more difficult to investigate the oil giants than, say, suspected bid-riggers in building maintenance. But that's no reason for Wu and her team not to get involved.
If building maintenance contractors are flies, the oil firms would be the tigers.
While it requires little courage to confront the flies, it would be a challenge to face the tigers. If the Independent Commission Against Corruption can step in to deal with the former, Wu's commission could tackle the tigers.
Does Wu have the intestinal fortitude, ie, guts? The public is watching.
According to the Consumer Council, international oil prices plunged a massive 64 percent from July 2004 to March 2016, whereas retail prices at the pumps fell only 19 percent. The huge difference can't be justified.
Equally alarming was the council's revelation that the retail prices of similar products provided by five oil companies were identical most of the time. In other words, motorists would be charged the same no matter where they went.
When the competition law took effect in December, I said the commission would need an issue to kick off its work with a bang to assert its presence.
A probe into the local oil market - not bid rigging - may produce the bang it needs.
