Basic Fuel News Today

As we head towards the National Budget Speech on 23 February, all eyes are on government to find a way to lower petrol prices, and perhaps even more importantly, to delineate how they will review how the latest petrol price was calculated.

South Africa hasn’t achieved its policy objective of deregulating the fuel price because vested interests have opposed this, and the government doesn’t have the political will to implement the policy.

The petrol price, which climbed 50% in 2021, is set to start the year lower as all grades of petrol and diesel across the board are reduced.

Energy sector expert Rod Crompton shares his insights into what influences the price – which is adjusted monthly – and explain how it’s calculated.

Energy sector expert Rod Crompton shares his insights in this Q&A.

At the start of December, South Africa saw its latest fuel price increase push the price of petrol to over R20 a litre in some parts of the country, its highest level yet. This caused an outcry. Energy sector expert Rod Crompton explains how the fuel price is calculated.

South Africa hasn’t achieved its policy objective of deregulating the fuel price because vested interests have opposed this, and the government doesn’t have the political will to implement the policy.

There is a position that says more taxes aren’t necessarily a bad thing, as these are ploughed back into the infrastructure spending of a developmental state, which improves the economy. That’s true if it happens that way. Sadly, ours is often wasted through gross inefficiencies in leaky procurement processes that pay three times the price for infrastructure that we don’t often need, while a whole lot is lost to corruption. The result is overspending and less delivery which stimulates the...