RALEIGH – North Carolina’s Justice Department sent inquiry letters to 42 gas stations and referred nine other complaints to the state Department of Agriculture after consumers reported possible fuel-price problems during the temporary suspension of the motor-fuel tax.
The department announced the actions Friday as an update to N.C. Fuel Check, the reporting program Attorney General Jeff Jackson launched after the General Assembly suspended the state’s 41-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline and diesel. Gov. Josh Stein signed the measure, which runs from Oct. 10 through Nov. 30.
The 42 letters concern complaints that retailers may not have passed the temporary tax savings to drivers. The letters notify the stations of those concerns and request prompt explanations. The department said a letter does not mean a station has been found to have violated the law.
The letters went to retailers in 30 counties. Guilford County had four, Avery County had three, and several counties had two. The department did not identify the individual retailers in its announcement.
The nine referrals concern complaints about differences between an advertised fuel price and the price charged at the pump. Those complaints involved retailers in Buncombe, Forsyth, Guilford, Madison, Nash, Onslow and Wake counties. NCDOJ sent those complaints to Agriculture for review.
Jackson said his office was seeing broad compliance while taking a closer look at selected complaints. The inquiry letters and referrals represent follow-up actions, not final findings that any named station broke the law. Consumers may continue submitting reports through the Justice Department’s Fuel Check page or by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.
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Photo Credit: Wassim Chouak via Unsplash. Context image of a motorist refueling a vehicle. Unsplash License: https://unsplash.com/license/
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.