BusinessTech
Parliament will hold a debate on South Africa’s record petrol price increases on 15 June following an official request by the opposition Democratic Alliance.
The discussions are set to focus on the country’s record petrol price hikes and possible interventions to structurally change how the basic fuel price is calculated.
The Democratic Alliance said it will use the debate to table its proposals which it said will cut more than R6 in tax and levies from every litre of fuel.
The opposition party has proposed:
On Tuesday (31 May), the National Treasury and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced that the general fuel levy reduction of R1.50/litre would be continued for another month. The reduction would then be halved to R0.75/litre in July, with the relief ending in August.
The government was under huge pressure to extend the levy reduction – without it, the petrol price would have increased by close to R4/litre last week.
Despite this, the government is set to face continued social and political pressure to shield consumers from the cost-of-living surge and will be unable to give in to all demands going forward. In an open letter published on Monday (6 June), president Cyril Ramaphosa warned government cannot afford to keep extending these fuel price interventions.
Read: When will petrol cars be phased out?
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Parliament to debate South Africa’s petrol price – with a proposal to cut more than R6 per litre – BusinessTech
