{"id":654839,"date":"2026-06-20T06:57:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T04:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=654839"},"modified":"2026-06-20T07:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T05:04:15","slug":"permanent-petrol-and-diesel-tax-cut-proposed-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/654839-permanent-petrol-and-diesel-tax-cut-proposed-for-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Permanent petrol and diesel tax cut proposed for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Civil action organisation AfriForum has written<\/a> to finance minister Enoch Godongwana, requesting that he make the temporary cut in fuel levies permanent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To provide relief to motorists amid surging fuel prices, the South African government cut the general fuel levy (GFL) by R3 per litre in April and May 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The price of diesel was cut by a further R0.93 in May 2026. In June, the relief was available for both petrol and diesel, reducing them to R1.50 and R1.97, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GFL cut is set to end completely on 1 July 2026. AfriForum wants the relief to continue indefinitely or to be extended for a considerable period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“AfriForum called on Enoch Godongwana, the Minister of Finance, to make the temporary fuel levy cut permanent and not end it on 1 July as planned,” the organisation said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The second-best alternative would be to cut the fuel levy for an extended period of time beyond 1 July, as oil prices remain high and further shocks in the near future are very likely.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to AfriForum’s head of public relations, Ernst van Zyl, the temporary reduction risks postponing price pressure on South African consumers and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The situation in the Middle East remains at a knife’s edge, and one would be na\u00efve to think the global economy is out of the woods,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Major price shocks are still a very real risk. It’s the government’s responsibility to help consumers and the economy avoid this pain as effectively as possible and not simply to postpone the impact.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While mid-month data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) pointed to significant reductions for July 2026, motorists will still be paying far more to refuel than they did before the US-Iran conflict began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 29 May and 16 June, retail unleaded 95 and 93 petrol prices showed over-recoveries of R2.80 and R2.85 per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wholesale diesel prices were set to see even larger declines, with the price per litre of 50ppm and 500ppm diesel indicating an over-recovery of R4.83 and R4.46.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the GFL reintroduction, the reductions for petrol would drop to R1.30 and R1.35 for unleaded 95 and unleaded 93, respectively, while the 50ppm wholesale diesel price reduction would shrink to R2.86.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forecourts feeling the pressure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Ernst van Zyl, AfriForum’s head of public relations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In late May 2026, South African Petroleum Retailers Association chair Henry van der Merwe said service stations in the country, particularly in rural areas, were feeling the pressure of reduced fuel sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said this was due to the surging prices and motorists adjusting their driving habits. Van der Merwe warned that some service stations could be forced to reduce opening hours or close their doors<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that forecourts’ fuel sales margins remained the same regardless of how high fuel prices rose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If we sell fuel at R25 a litre, we get R2. If we sell it at R40 a litre, we get R2. That’s where the unfortunate situation comes in. When high fuel prices hit us, the litres go down,” Van der Merwe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It hits us hard, specifically the smaller sites, the rural areas. Those people are phoning and saying ‘we can’t afford to stay open at night because of security risks and low litres at night’.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further warned that service stations in rural areas would face security-of-supply challenges if fuel prices did not normalise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“People are talking of retrenching people because they can’t afford them, or operating shorter hours, and that, for the entire country, is not a good thing,” Van der Merwe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that petrol stations had observed a substantial increase in motorists driving off without paying for their fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Predicted fuel price changes for July 2026, including the impact of ending the GFL cuts, are summarised in the table below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuel type<\/th>Current price<\/th>Price change before tax adjustments<\/th>GFL adjustment<\/th>Price after GFL adjustment<\/th>Estimated new price<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Inland<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Unleaded 95 petrol<\/td>R28.06<\/td>-R2.80<\/td>+R1.50<\/td>-R1.30<\/td>R26.76<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Unleaded 93 petrol<\/td>R27.95<\/td>-R2.85<\/td>+R1.50<\/td>-R1.35<\/td>R26.60<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
50ppm diesel<\/td>R29.26<\/td>-R4.83<\/td>+R1.97<\/td>-R2.86<\/td>R26.36<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
500ppm diesel<\/td>R27.92<\/td>-R4.46<\/td>+R1.97<\/td>-R2.49<\/td>R25.39<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Coast<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Unleaded 95 petrol<\/td>R27.19<\/td>-R2.80<\/td>+R1.50<\/td>-R1.30<\/td>R26.19<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Unleaded 93 petrol<\/td>R27.16<\/td>-R2.85<\/td>+R1.50<\/td>-R1.35<\/td>R25.81<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
50ppm diesel<\/td>R28.00<\/td>-R4.83<\/td>+R1.97<\/td>-R2.86<\/td>R25.10<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
500ppm diesel<\/td>R27.05<\/td>-R4.46<\/td>+R1.97<\/td>-R2.49<\/td>R24.52<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reintroduction of the full general fuel levy will blunt the price reductions currently forecast for petrol and diesel in July 2026. AfriForum has appealed for a different approach. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":651171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[1731,53131,82991,71346,74006,60225,63309,64376,12285,51719],"class_list":["post-654839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-afriforum","tag-central-energy-fund-cef","tag-diesel-prices","tag-enoch-godongwana","tag-ernst-van-zyl","tag-fuel-prices","tag-general-fuel-levy","tag-minister-of-finance","tag-national-treasury","tag-petrol-prices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654839"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655079,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654839\/revisions\/655079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}