The government capped fuel prices on Friday to protect consumers from price-gouging following a customs strike, which is expected to disrupt fuel deliveries across the country.

The caps will take effect from 0.01am Saturday to coincide with the walkout by customs officers, the development ministry said in a statement.

The maximum prices allowed in each prefecture are listed on the ministry's price observatory website www.fuelprices.gr (click here for Word document).

"We have repeatedly warned we would not tolerate any unjustified price increases. Today we observed some at petrol stations," Deputy Development Minister Sokratis Xynidis said.

Customs officials went on a 10-day strike on Friday to protest planned wage cuts, which are part of an austerity package that is scheduled to pass parliament next week.

The walkout is expected to lead to fuel shortages, because deliveries from refiners to petrol stations usually require customs clearance.

Fuel price caps are not unusual in Greece, especially in tourism-heavy areas during the summer holiday season. But the measure is seldom applied nationwide.

Maximum selling prices were set at 1.643 euros per litre for 95-octane unleaded petrol in Athens and at 1.458 euros per litre for diesel fuel.

Consumers can report stations selling petrol at prices above the price limits by contacting the price observatory section of the General Secretariat of Commerce (tel 1520, fax 210-381-5317).

Retail prices for fuel have jumped by as much as 50 percent since the government hiked fuel taxes last year as part of a bailout organised by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

The proportion taken in tax out of every euro of fuel sold at the pump has risen to more than 60 percent.

Gross margins of gas station owners have fallen accordingly, from nine percent at the beginning of 2010 to six percent, according to data by the country's biggest refining company Hellenic Petroleum (Elpe).