Consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets, with Energy Minister Jeff Radebe announcing that fuel prices will increase on Wednesday.
The fuel prices for April 2019 will be adjusted as follows:
Petrol (93 Octane, ULP and LRP): 134.00 cents per litre (c/l) increasePetrol (95 Octane, ULP and LRP): 131.00 c/l increaseDiesel (0.05% sulphur): 81.70 c/l increaseDiesel (0.005% sulphur): 82.70 c/l increaseIlluminating Paraffin (wholesale): 63.00 c/l increaseSMNRP for IP: 65.00 c/l increaseMaximum LPGas Retail Price: 171.00 c/kg increase
Motorists will now be paying more than R15 per litre of petrol.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Department of Energy said the price adjustment was based on current local and international factors.
“South Africa’s fuel prices are adjusted on a monthly basis, informed by international and local factors. International factors include the fact that South Africa imports both crude oil and finished products at a price set at the international level, including importation costs, e.g. shipping costs,” the department said.
The increase comes in the same month that road, pipelines and fuel tariffs are revised, and Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy increases are to be implemented, affecting the price structures of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin (IP).
“Their total contributions to the fuel price increase is about 26.00c/l in Gauteng, whilst the international factors amounted to about 106.00c/l on petrol and 56.00c/l on diesel and IP,” the Energy Department said.
The department attributed the fuel price adjustments to the depreciating Rand/US Dollar exchange, from 13.80 to 14.36 Rand per USD.
This increased the contribution on the Basic Fuel Price of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by between 28.00c/l and 30.00c/l.
Another factor was the increase in Brent crude oil prices, which rose to 64.04USD to 66.01USD per barrel during the period under review.
“The main contributing factors were the tightening of stock levels in the USA and the US sanctions against Venezuela, which was compounded by widespread power outages. This led to higher prices of all the petroleum products, which increased the contribution on the Basic Fuel Price of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by about 78.00c/l, 26.66c/l and 25.76c/l respectively,” the department said.
Also attributing to the increase were local factors such as the increase in fuel and Road Accident Fund levies, rising by 15.0c/l and 5.0c/l, respectively, as announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni during the Budget Speech in February.
The increases in primary transport cost are attributed to an average annual increase of 10.96% in road transport tariffs and an annual increase of 10.95% in pipeline transport costs announced by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) on 16 March 2019.
Increases in primary transport cost will differ in the 54 Fuel Pricing Zones due to the different transport cost increases applied in the pricing zones.
Transport cost for petrol and diesel will increase by 5.7 c/l in Gauteng and 0.3 c/l in coastal areas.
The department will on Tuesday publish the fuel prices schedule for the different zones.
– SAnews.gov.za
