by South African’s are due for another monumental fuel price hike on the 6th of June. We kicked 2018 off at R14.20 per litre of petrol, and things were looking pretty good for us in Feb and March as we saw consecutive drops. Little did we know…
By May we were sitting on R14.72. Now, we can expect a huge increase of 82c a litre – bringing us up to a record R15.54.
The consumer will feel it. The minibus taxi fare will no doubt be affected, and then food as the costs of agriculture and transportation surges.
Massive Petrol Price Hike
The fuel price hike applies to 93 and 95 octane petrol, as well as paraffin. The poor, who use illuminating paraffin for lighting, heating and cooking, will be hit the hardest.
Diesel is going up between 85 and 87 cents per litre.
Energy Minister, Jeff Radebe, announced the adjustments last week. Reasons for the hike were stated as the result of depreciation in the Rand against the US Dollar, as well as an increase in the global price of crude oil.
According to the Automobile Association, the latest hike also takes into account the leftover under-recovery from April. A substantial part of the R15.54 we pay through our nose includes the government’s fuel taxes. The taxes, as you may remember, officially increased back in April. This included R3.37 for the General Fuel Levy and R1.93 for the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
That’s not even the worst of it.
The AA also warned that, should market conditions continue as they have, motorists can expect yet another petrol price hike in July.
The price of petrol is expected to shoot past the R16 mark and on toward R17 a litre. Which is just plain pathological.
On the plus side, Russia and Saudi Arabia are about to boost their oil production. So, all we really need to do is weather this storm and hope that the Rand stabilizes.
We still have one of the better, more transparent fuel systems in the world. So, there’s that.
