Petrol price: Some relief, but don’t expect cost of living to reduce just yet

Although motorists are looking forward to another decrease in fuel prices tomorrow, experts say it won’t make much difference to their pockets.

On Monday, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe announced both grades of petrol will decrease by R2.04 per litre, while diesel will drop by 40 cents and 60 cents per litre effective from midnight.

Economist Dawie Roodt said the decreases in petrol prices won’t have a big effect on motorists’ pockets.

“When you fill up, you might pay R100 less on a tank, but the rest of the economy won’t be affected because price changes take a while to filter through the economy.

“The previous fuel increases have not worked through the economy yet,” he said.

The decrease could neutralise the previous increases.

“The economy’s underlying inflation will be unaffected, but it does have an impact on the month-to-month inflation rate,” he said.

Petrol price decreases welcome

Automobile Association spokesperson Layton Beard said the current unaudited data from the Central Energy Fund indicated significant reductions in fuel prices, specifically the petrol price.

“These decreases are certainly welcome and will provide some relief to motorists. Considering the expected decrease to ULP95, for instance, the price for this fuel will drop from its current R25.42 a litre to R23.07 a litre.

“This is cheaper than the June price of R24.17 per litre but still significantly higher than the R21.84 per litre May pricing. It is also way off the January pricing of R19.61 per litre,” he said.

Total garage Murrayfield manager Francis Hickman said after the increases this year, she noticed motorists filling up their tanks less often.

“Instead, they on refilled with R200 or R100 at a time. We also noticed the companies who had accounts with us refuelling less. Where they would use R300, they scaled down to R150 petrol,” she explained.

ALSO READ: Hefty petrol price drop from 7 September – Here’s how much you’ll pay per litre

Hickman said the quantity of fuel sold over the past few months was down.

“I know of other garages that took a big knock. We are fortunate for the support from the clients,” she said.

Hickman said when the price decreases, they have to employ extra workers to help with the demand. Andries Pretorius, who refuels at the garage, said he could not wait for tomorrow to fill up his tank. Pretorius said he was glad about the decrease but feared the prices would increase again later this year.

“The decrease is great because now we can use some of that money to pay off our accounts again,” he said.

Pretorius said he needed to travel to make money. Uber delivery driver Joe Sithole said he was happy to hear about the decreases.

“It’s a good thing because sometimes we drive as much as 100km on a busy day,” he said.

Sithole said he did an average of 15 deliveries a day and spent R2 600 on petrol on average for the deliveries.

Private Public Transport Association of SA spokesperson Vhatuka Mbelengwa said they welcomed the reduction.

“We await further reduction for stability and increased economic activity within transportation,” he said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za