Sue’s Views: Are we being taken for a ride?

Folks, it’s time to batten down the hatches and face the oncoming storm. In June the carbon tax comes into effect.

This will add a further nine cents per litre to the price of petrol, and 10 cents per litre for diesel.  In addition, the general fuel levy will increase by 15 cents per litre, while the Road Accident Traffic Fund will increase by five cents per litre as from April this year.  Custom and excise taxes for both petrol and diesel per litre will remain at four cents.

All told these indirect taxes amount to a petrol increase of 29 cents per litre and diesel at 30 cents per litre, and this excludes fuel price hikes throughout the course of the year.

Bottom line, you ask? Consumers will be paying indirect taxes on fuel of R5.67 per litre of petrol and R5.53 per litre for diesel.

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So what exactly is a carbon tax?  It is a tax imposed on emissions of greenhouse gasses including carbon dioxide. The underlying purpose of the carbon tax is to supposedly level the playing field between carbon-intensive (fossil fuel-based firms) and the low carbon emitting sectors. In other words, the tax will reduce pollution and encourage more environmentally friendly alternatives.

Now, this is where the sting in the tail comes in for the common man on the street.  The carbon tax is primarily aimed at industry but we all know how that goes…. companies which cannot reduce their emissions enough to avoid the carbon tax will merely hike prices on their products to cover the cost of their carbon tax burden.

The poor consumer (that’s you and me folks) will be hit with a double whammy with the hike in fuel and product costs, it’s as simple as that.

Now if only we could get our politicians to pay a carbon tax for the amount of carbon dioxide they emit – that would swell the government coffers considerably.