£1-a-litre is defended

The petrol station boss who sent diesel through the £1 barrier this week insisted today: "I am not robbing anybody – I am just surviving."

Texaco garage owner Shailesh Parekh added: " I am not pleading poverty but there must be an easier way to make a living." Diesel went up this week to 103.9p a litre on his forecourt.

It has since reduced to 101.9p, but he says there is only 4p profit in that for him – and part of that goes towards paying his eight staff and other overheads in the 24-hour-a-day operation. The 43-year-old father of two from Solihull, bought the petrol station on the Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, just outside the city centre three years ago.

He continued: "I cannot paint the town red earning that kind of money.

"It does not give me any pleasure to increase the price but the only other option is to close the place down and sell it for flats."

He sells around 4,000 litres of diesel a day and admitted: "I am earning a decent living out of it but the real culprits are the Government – and they are the real winners because they pocket 66p of the price motorists are currently having to pay on my forecourt.

"I am just charging an economic price."

Mr Parekh, who has lived in this country for more than 20 years, once charged more than £1 a litre for diesel in April two years ago but predicted that it it was unlikely to drop below that price again.

Two pence of duty was added by the Government this week, and another 2p a litre will be added next April.

He said: " I am thinking of not displaying the cost in signs by the roadside – you are only obliged to do it at the pump.

"The customer is not happy about the present price.

"I do not get personal abuse but I have had a lot of people asking why it is so high and it is important that they should know the facts."