SA’s fuel prices doubled over past decade
The average South African's annual fuel expenditure is among the highest in the world, with only Mexicans spending more of their salaries on fuel than we do
SOUTH Africans have come to expect the regular petrol price increases and it may therefore not come as a shock that our fuel prices have doubled over the past decade.
The average South African’s annual fuel expenditure is among the highest in the world, with only Mexicans spending more of their salaries on fuel than we do.
Our most recent fuel hike, on 4 October, saw ULP 93 and 95 increase by 25c and 29c/litre respectively, while diesel went up by 42c/litre and paraffin by 39c.
Thanks to our weakened, and at times volatile rand, South Africa is particularly sensitive to movements of the international fuel price.
Although the rand strengthened against the US dollar during the first half of September, this reversed midway through the month, wiping out its earlier gains.
One month on and the rand is weaker still against the US dollar, and the AA expects this to have more of an impact on fuel users in the medium term.
They said that further fuel increases before year end are inevitable.
Over the past decade ULP 95 has seen the biggest increase while diesel prices remain cheaper than petrol.
This is because diesel prices reflect wholesale prices, and diesel retail prices vary from pump to pump, depending on the margins applied by each retailer.
In August 2007 South Africans paid R6.88/litre for ULP 93, R7.01/litre for ULP 95 and R6.51/litre for diesel.
Ten years on and ULP 93 users are paying R13.74/litre, ULP 95 users are paying R14.01/litre and diesel users are paying R12.13/litre.
Fuel prices have decreased somewhat since 2014, the most expensive year to fill our tanks, when we had to fork our
R14.08 for ULP 93, R14.33 for ULP 95 and R12.84 for diesel.
The basic fuel price is determined by numerous factors, both local and international.
The international factors include the transport of oil from international export stations to South African harbours and 15% insurance cover of total value of freight carried.
Local factors include transport of oil to inland depots from coastal refineries and the Road Accident Fund levy on both petrol and diesel.
The five most expensive countries in the world fuel-wise are Norway (R27.14/litre), Hong Kong (R27.06/litre), Iceland (R25.75/litre), Monaco (R24.95/litre) and Netherlands (R24.91/litre)
The five cheapest countries fuel-wise are Venezuela (R0.12/litre), Saudi Arabia (R3.28/litre), Turkmenistan (R3.90/litre), Algeria (R4.30/litre) and Kuwait (R4.74/litre).
•Source: Compare Guru
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