OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 03.15pm.
South African motorists could expect the high fuel price to remain high for some time despite recent decreases in the price of crude oil, Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
She told a media conference that the drop in the price of crude oil by US1.20 was not worth “shouting from the rooftops about” because its price had risen 300 percent in two years. This, she said, was a very small decrease.
“I am not optimistic about a decrease in the petrol price very soon. Consumers are going to have to compensate for the high price by adopting more economical ways of driving,” she said.
The minister said a decrease in the local petrol price — which has risen by 83 cents since June 1999 — depended on the quantities of crude oil produced by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the fluctuating foreign exchange rate.
The strong international demand for oil products was pushing the price of crude oil, Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
The petrol price, adjusted on a monthly basis, also depended on internal costs.
“These include the basic price, wholesale margin, retail margin, transport costs and taxes and levies, transport costs, government imposts and levies and margins.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka said transport costs across various countries varied as one moved further from the coastal refineries.
The taxes, she said, made sense in the long run because they contributed towards protecting the environment and to “efforts to increase the use of renewable energy.”
When asked for detail on how tax on the petrol price was spent, the minister said she would refer the question to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.