Petrol price shock looms as fuel levy relief is cut

More pain lies in store for struggling households from Wednesday when the price of petrol rises sharply and the general fuel levy relief is halved. This will cause ripple effects throughout the economy. Theprice of petrolwill increase by R1.43/lfor both 93 octane and 95 octane, but theprice of dieselwill fall sharply by R3.24/lfor 0.5% sulphur and by R2.61/lfor 0.005% sulphur.

The decline in the diesel price will have a positive impact on industry. The R17.2bn relief provided by the government, initially for April and May and then extended until end-June, was in the form of a R3 reduction in the general fuel levy to R1.10 and for diesel, initially from R3.93 to R0.93 and then to zero in May. According to mineral & petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe, the generalfuel levy relief for Juneis reduced by R1.50/land by R1.96/lfor diesel.