File Photo: Cape Town motorists queue to fill up on 5 July 2022. (Photo: Gallo Images / ER Lombard) South African motorists have braced for a fuel price shock this week and here it is – though the blow has been softened by a R3-per-litre cut to the fuel levy.
From midnight, 1 April, the petrol price rises R3.06 a litre to R23.25, while the inland diesel price will be R7.51 a litre higher at R26.11 – a record high. This is no April Fool’s joke.
The Iran war, which has sent international oil prices soaring over $100 a barrel and flattened the rand, is the trigger for this painful spike which will filter through the cost pipeline and fuel inflation.
Oil is priced in greenbacks so the monthly adjustment is always based on a combination of global crude prices and the rand’s changing value against the dollar – and this time round it’s a double whammy of note, cushioned by the slashing of the fuel levy.
“The minister of finance proposes that the general fuel levy is temporarily reduced by R3 per litre from Wednesday, 1 April 2026 to Tuesday, 5 May 2026. This will reduce the general fuel levy for petrol from R4.10 per litre to R1.10 per litre and reduce the general fuel levy for diesel from R3.93 per litre to R0.93 per litre for one month,” the Finance Ministry and Ministry of Minerals and Petroleum Resources said in a joint statement.
They also said a broader package of reforms was in the works, including reviewing fuel pricing over the medium term and other measures “to support households and key sectors of the economy. Further details on additional support measures will be announced in due course.”
Economists had warned that increases on the scale that would have obtained without the cut to the fuel levy would have added at least 1.0 percentage point to annual South African consumer inflation in April. In February, the consumer price index (CPI) was 3.0% on a year-on-year basis, bang on the South African Reserve Bank’s target.
For April at least, the CPI will probably come close 4.0% – the upper point of the Bank’s “tolerance band” – but the fuel levy reduction will contain it while depriving Treasury of about R6-billion in tax revenue.
Extending the relief beyond 5 May will deprive Treasury of even more revenue as it scrambles to stabilise South Africa’s debt levels at a time when economic growth will also almost certainly slow because of the headwinds blowing from the Iran conflict.
A winter of discontent lies on the horizon. DM