The price of petrol and diesel are expected to go up on April 4, as fuel and Road Accident Fund (RAF) levies increase.
The Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that the price of petrol will rise by 72 cents to R14.48 a litre and diesel will increase by 65 cents to R12.74. The price of illuminating paraffin has however decreased by 2 cents.
The increase was impacted by both fuel levies and the rand-to-dollar exchange rate. The energy department said in its statement that the rand weakened from R11.82 to R11.87 against the dollar during the period reviewed.
The increase means the cost of transport will also increase as petrol and diesel will increase by 10.2 cents per litre in Gauteng and 0.1 cents per litre in coastal cities, in line with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and the road transport tariffs implemented by the RAF.
The energy department’s increases surpasse the figures anticipated by the Automobile Association (AA).
The AA anticipated that petrol would go up by 63 cents a litre and diesel would go up by 57 cents.
According to the AA the increase will largely impact the transport costs for the daily commuter and also the shipment of goods around the country. It said producers, suppliers and freight companies will be forced to recover costs on the back of both the fuel increase and the VAT increase, which also comes into effect in April.
The fuel price schedule for the different zones will be published on Tuesday April 3 2018.
- Moneyweb
