Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe announced that motorists will be saving some of their money when heading to fill up their tanks. The petrol and diesel price has officially went down.
93 (ULP & LRP) will decrease by 62 cents a litre, while the price of 95 (ULP & LRP) will decrease by 76 cents a litre. This means that a litre of 95, which currently costs R23.25 in Gauteng, will come down to R22.49.
The price of Diesel (0.05% sulphur) will come down by 118.32 cents a litre and the price of Diesel (0.005% sulphur) will come down by 126.32 cents a litre as well.
Other fuel adjustments include:
- Paraffin (wholesale) will decrease by 93 cents per litre
- Single Maximum National Retail Price (SMNRP) for illuminating paraffin will come down by R1.24 per litre
These changes in fuel prices were due to various reasons such as: crude oil prices, international petroleum product prices; the Rand/US Dollar exchange rate; the implementation of the Slate Levy, and the octane differential between 95 and 93 petrol grades.
The average brent crude oil price decreased from 82.62 US Dollars (USD) to 77.35 USD during the period under review, mainly due to, increased production.
The average international product prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin decreased in line with the lower crude oil prices. LPG prices increased due to higher freight cost.
"These factors led to lower contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 50.83 cents a litre, 105.81 cents a litre and 99 cents a litre, respectively,” explained Mantashe.
During this time, the Rand depreciated against the US dollar as well from R18.57 to R18.66 per US dollar. This led to higher contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin.
On the implementation of the slate levy, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy said the cumulative slate balance on petrol and diesel at the end of November 2023 had a positive balance of R1.8 billion.
Therefore, a slate levy of zero cents a litre will be implemented in the price structure of petrol and diesel with effect from the 3rd of January 2024. This means that the motorists will benefit by 26.32 cents per litre since the slate levy will decrease from 26.32 to zero cents per litre.
The BFP octane differential has changed during the previous quarter and therefore the retail prices of 95 and 93 petrol octanes will be different in each fuel-pricing zone with effect from the 3rd of January 2024, said the Minister.
