The Office of Fair Trading has refused a Freedom of Information request for Manx Gas’s annual accounts to be published.

Manx Gas continues to come under fire over its banded standing charges.

These have prompted a series of protests by customers, with a further one due to take place in Regent Street, Douglas, this Saturday.

Manx Gas has pledged to review its standing charge pricing structure and has launched a Customer Charter.

In his state of the nation address to Tynwald last month, Chief Minister Howard Quayle said he is setting up his own committee to review gas prices.

A Freedom of Information request asked the OFT to release a copy of Manx Gas’s accounts for the last financial year.

But the request was refused, perhaps unsurprisingly, on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.

The OFT said it is provided with Manx Gas Limited’s accounts in confidence and the terms and conditions of the regulatory agreement state that confidential information cannot be disclosed to any third party for ’any reason or purpose whatsoever’ without the prior written consent of the utility.

It added: ’The OFT has contacted Manx Gas Limited to seek written consent to release the accounts. However, the company has responded by stating that the accounts are commercial and confidential and are not to be disclosed.’

The Facebook protest group is led by Barry Murphy and now has more than 1,200 members.

Mr Murphy started the group when he realised that there were significant inconsistencies in his bills and those of his immediate neighbours living in similar properties. He was on Band E, but his neighbours on either side were in Band D and Band F respectively, which would mean a difference of a £121 per year between neighbouring households.

Banded standing charges were introduced in January last year. It meant customers would see an increase in the amount of standing charge they pay, but a decrease in the per unit tariff cost.

Manx Gas insisted that over the course of a typical year, the majority of customers will see little change, but some would see a small increase while others would see a small decrease, depending on the volume of gas they use.

But critics argue that some customers are too scared to turn on the heating because of the cost, and even if you turn the heating right down you are still paying a high standing charge.

Managing director Tony Nicholls said he is committed to work with government on the review led by the Chief Minister’s gas regulatory review committee. It will start its work early next year.