Morrisons is to temporarily freeze the price of its fuel despite the Government’s 2p a litre rise in duty from Wednesday.

With VAT, the rise will actually be 2.3p, pushing the average price into the 108p range. Morrisons says that it will freeze its prices from September 1 for five days. It is currently charging 103.77p for unleaded petrol and 103.90p for diesel.

Sainsbury’s said it would not be imposing a freeze as its fuel prices were already low, while says an Asda spokeswoman: “We don’t do stunts. Our prices reflect our costs, and we can offer our customers low prices every day, including pre-bank holiday when sales are at their peak.”

Petrol was roughly 85p a litre but at the beginning of the year. With world oil prices likely to increase over the next few weeks, it is feared that prices at the pump could soon rise to 110p a litre.