Petrol price to decrease from Wednesday – here’s by how much

The temporary reduction of the general fuel levy will officially end on Tuesday.

Petrol being pumped at a filling station in Pretoria on 3 May 2022. Picture: Jacques Nelles

The petrol price in South Africa is set to drop by R1 per litre for August, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has confirmed.

The department announced on Saturday evening that both 93 and 95 Unleaded Petrol (UPL) will decrease by R1.32 per litre, while diesel will be cut by 88 cents per litre for 0.05% sulphur and by 91 cents for 0.005% sulphur per litre.

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Paraffin prices will be slashed by R1.44 a litre. However, the maximum LPGas retail price will go up by 57 cents per kilogram (KG).

The temporary reduction of the general fuel levy will officially end on Tuesday.

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“As a result, the fuel levy will amount to 394 cents per litre for petrol and 380 cents per litre for diesel,” the department said in a statement on Saturday.

The levy was reduced from R3.85 to R2.35 per litre after the government initially cut it down by R1.50 for two months between 6 April and 31 May.

Government extended the temporary reduction from 1 June until 6 July, with the second reprieve of 75 cents per litre coming into effect on 7 July until 2 August.

This led to higher contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 95.66 c/l, 103.68 and 105.12 c/l respectively.
— Department of Mineral Resources and Energy ‏ (@DMRE_ZA) July 30, 2022

Deregulation

Last week, government officially started the process of deregulating the price of 93 octane petrol in South Africa.

Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe gazetted the notice of the intention to introduce a price cap on Friday.

Government previously indicated its intention on the matter, saying the deregulation plans would only occur once the Treasury figures out how to recover the R90 billion loss from the fiscus it would see if fuel taxes were removed in one go.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana revealed that there were many options on the table to achieve this, such as additional taxes on motor licence renewal fees to fund the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

There had been talks of the RAF levy being scrapped from the fuel levy and moving elsewhere, which has been backed by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy.

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