By Daanyaal Matthews
South Africans can expect a significant hit to their budgets as the Automobile Association (AA) reported fuel price increases in its unedited data. Petrol is expected to rise by R1/litre, Diesel to rise by R2/litre, and Paraffin by R1.8/litre.
Speaking on VOC Breakfast, Eleanor Mavimbela, Spokesperson for the AA, stated that petrol, diesel, and paraffin, will be increasing which, when viewed congruently with the increase for September, would see the nation hit with record high prices.
Eleanor attributed most of the increase to oil prices and the weakening rand, stating:
‘Attributed to the high increases, is the high international oil prices, which is contributing over 80% to the increases we are seeing.’
Eleanor further stated that the increase of diesel is upsetting considering its utilization by businesses but also stresses the weakening rand as not helping consumers in the international markets.
‘It’s quite a worry when we see Diesel going up so much, usually sometimes we know that the Rand-Dollar exchange rate does assist to buffer the increases but this time the Rand did not perform so well against the Dollar that we are seeing.’
With the fuel market currently entering unchartered territory a question growing has been on what Government could do to better assist the residents of the Republic. Eleanor answered this question by admitting that while Government cannot do much in terms of the international oil prices, they can look towards the taxes levied on fuel to better assist South Africans.
‘We say let’s look at how the fuel prices are calculated in South Africa, so that we can be on par with our neighboring countries. We do know that our neighboring countries don’t pay the tax that we pay in terms of the RAF levy and so forth. We feel as the Automobile Association that because there is so much mismanagement in terms of finances at the Road Accident Fund, we should look at the amount of money that is pumped into that organization from the fuel levy,’ added Mavimbela.
