Big petrol and diesel price hikes for South Africa
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has published adjustments to South Africa’s fuel prices for February 2022.
It’s bad news at the pumps, with all grades of petrol and diesel set for increases.
For drivers of petrol cars, the retail prices of unleaded 95 and 93 will jump by 53 cents per litre. That means the price of unleaded 95 inland will again breach R20.
But diesel vehicle drivers will be hit even harder, with the wholesale price of 500ppm going up by 79.84 cents per litre, while 50ppm will increase by 78.84 cents per litre.
The bad news extends beyond motorists, with impoverished communities without electricity access set to pay R1.35 more per litre for illuminating paraffin.
The changes in pricing are as follows:
- 93 unleaded petrol — 53 cents increase
- 95 unleaded petrol — 53 cents increase
- 500ppm diesel — 79.84 cents increase
- 50ppm diesel — 78.84 cents increase
- Illuminating paraffin — 135 cents increase
The adjustments will take effect from Wednesday, 2 February 2022.
The table below shows the new retail prices for 95 and 93 unleaded petrol compared to the current price.
| Fuel price changes | ||
| January 2022 | February 2022 | |
| Inland | ||
| 93 Unleaded | R19.36 | R19.89 |
| 95 Unleaded | R19.61 | R20.14 |
| Coast | ||
| 93 Unleaded | R18.84 | R19.37 |
| 95 Unleaded | R18.89 | R19.42 |
The increases could have been even worse had the rand not strengthened against the dollar during the period under review.
“The average rand/US dollar exchange rate for the period 31 December 2021 to 27 January 2022 was 15.5081 compared to 15.9196 during the previous period,” the DMRE explained.
“This led to a lower contribution to the Basic Fuel Prices on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 25.98 c/l, 26.24 c/l and 26.19 c/l respectively,” it added.
However, the average international prices for all products increased.
In addition, a levy of 30.70 c/l had to be implemented to account for a negative combined petrol and diesel slate balance of R3.49 billion at the end of December. Nevertheless, this is 13.16 cents lower than the previous month’s levy.
The table below shows how much motorists with various tank sizes can expect to pay to fill up from 2 February 2022 compared to January’s prices.
| Price to fill up typical vehicle tanks | |||
| Tank size | January 2022 | February 2022 | Increase |
| 95 unleaded | |||
| 45 litres | R882.45 | R906.30 | R23.85 |
| 60 litres | R1,176.60 | R1,208.40 | R31.80 |
| 80 litres | R1,568.80 | R1,611.20 | R42.40 |
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