Expect petrol price hike if e-tolls get scrapped — Mantashe
The South African Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, has warned that fuel prices will continue to increase if e-tolls are scrapped, News24 reported.
Mantashe said that if scrapped, e-tolls would be replaced with more levies on fuel, which would negatively impact consumers.
This comes after South Africa’s Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, said that finance minister Enoch Godongwana would reveal the fate of e-tolls during his budget address in February 2022.
“And Mbalula, he talks of scrapping the e-tolls, I can tell you, he will go for petrol levies,” News24 quoted Gwede Mantashe as saying on the sidelines of South Africa’s bilateral talks with Nigeria.
Mbalula and National Treasury are currently investigating the financial implications of scrapping e-tolls.
South Africans were subject to another substantial increase in fuel prices on Wednesday, bringing the inland petrol price to over R20 per litre.
The price of unleaded 93 and 95 petrol increased by 75c per litre, and South Africans will be paying 72c more per litre of diesel.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy made a mistake for the first time in history when it announced the price increase, initially stating that unleaded petrol would increase by 81c per litre.
The Department took responsibility for the mistake, saying the over-estimation was due to the adjustment of wages for service station workers already being implemented in September 2021.
Mantashe said the error didn’t affect any consumers as it was corrected before the new price went live.
Despite the actual increase being 6c less than initially expected, the price hike is still significant, pushing the price of unleaded petrol to R20.07 per litre for 93 and R20.29 per litre for 95, while diesel reached R17.92 per litre.
According to Mantashe, government can’t provide relief for consumers concerning this week’s fuel price increase.
“There’s nothing we can do unless we change the formula … it goes up, it goes down,” he told News24.