Petrol price drop likely in new year

Motorists can look forward to a slight, perhaps temporary, relief in their pockets as the petrol price is expected to drop to below R20 per litre soon.

Economist Mike Schüssler predicted the petrol price will drop by 75 cents back below R20 per litre.

“Usually at the beginning of the year, the price of petrol falls because the price of oil falls.”

Schüssler said the oil price falls after consumers of the northern hemisphere have stocked up for their winter.

“The oil demand then becomes a little less. So it’s a bit seasonal and typically one will get the lowest petrol price in a year in January/February,” he said.

After April and May, prices will start to rise again because of the new taxes in April.

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“I think the petrol price will stay below R20 for the two to three months after the decrease,” said Schüssler.

Pretoria mother of four Yolandi Botha said a full tank of diesel was costing her a lot of money.

“It used to cost R650 to fill up, then R700 and now R780,” Botha said.

“It’s like daylight robbery, because neighbouring countries pay half the price while we stress how to put food on the table.”

A single mother from Pretoria East, Anja Botha, who travels between 180 to 250km a day, said her car was so heavy on petrol that she has considered trading it in for a vehicle that had better consumption.

Botha said in the past, she could get around with as little as R150 a day for petrol.

“Now, it’s nothing less than R250 a day,” she said.

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said many organisations wanted to know how the petrol and diesel prices were determined. He said taxes that were levied were keeping the price high.

“If the state somehow makes concessions regarding that tax, then you have to go get those funds elsewhere,” he said.

Croucamp said it was not as if paying taxes could be suspended.

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“And then there is X amount allocated to the state class in tax.

“The state levies R85 billion annually on tax on petrol,” he said.

Croucamp said there was already a budget deficit, so tax cannot be suspended either. “I cannot think, somehow, one has to reduce the tax revenue that the state gets from petrol, but the state does not have that ability,” he said.

In his budget speech in February, Finance Minister Enoch Godogwana is expected to make an announcement on the future of e-tolls system, but Croucamp does not expect any solutions from this which will ease the pain of motorists already paying high prices at the pumps.