The price of diesel will jump again this week, adding further impetus to consumer price inflation, which is threatening to burst above the Reserve Bank’s 3-6% target range.
Depending on the sulphur content, the price of diesel will rise by either 92c/l or 98c/l from Wednesday, the department of mineral resources & energy said. Diesel prices have been pushed markedly higher in recent months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Diesel is a big input costs in most industries, including telecommunications, where the fuel is used to keep base stations operating during load shedding. Eskom also consumes vast amounts of diesel in an effort to prevent or lessen the impact of regular load shedding.
The soaring diesel price comes in spite of the temporary tax relief measure announced at the end of March by finance minister Enoch Godongwana. This cut the price of petrol and diesel by R1.50/l until the end of May. If this relief measure is not extended beyond 31 May, another big price hike in both diesel and petrol should be expected next month.
The price of petrol will, meanwhile, come down in price from Wednesday by 12c/l across all grades: a litre of 95 octane in Gauteng, for example, will decline from R21.96/l to R21.84/l.
“The average brent crude oil price decreased from US$109.37 to $104.78/barrel during the period under review,” the energy department said.
“The average international product prices of petrol decreased while diesel and illuminating paraffin increased during the period under review. This is because there is still a shortage of diesel supply due to lower exports from Russia as a major exporter of distillate fuel, low inventories globally as well as higher demand for distillates.” — © 2022 NewsCentral Media
