OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Johannesburg | Wednesday
AS soaring petrol prices spark worldwide protests, the South African government is to establish a committee to find ways to control the price.
While South African consumers and businesses have meekly accepted the hike, protesters blocked highways across Europe.
Belgian Transport Minister Isabelle Durant announced that European Union transport ministers would meet later this month to discuss fuel taxes.
The meeting was called at the initiative of the French presidency of the EU, Durant said after negotiations with Belgian hauliers who are calling for a ”professional fuel price”.
A scheme in South Africa being mooted for a tax rebate for farmers has been rejected by government.
Mineral and Energy Affairs representative Kanyo Gqulu said if government agreed to a rebate for farmers, it would have a snowball effect with others, such as a the taxi industry, wanting the rebate.
Chief economist at Econometrix, Dr Azar Jammine said while South Africa’s fuel price was higher than those of her neighbours and the United States, the price was much lower than in Europe.
He said the domestic price had kept more or less in line with inflation.
On the deregulation of the fuel industry, Jammine said thousands of petrol pump attendants would lose their jobs if this happened, and in any event fuel taxes were not that high.
He said motorists would just have to ”grin and bear it”, musing that perhaps Sasol could be persuaded to take a short term cut in profits.
Business Day reports that Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was looking for concrete proposals on the fuel price structure. Proposals from the fuel industry have to be submitted to the department before the end of the month.
As angry truckers brought traffic in Brussels to a near standstill, there were threats of similar action in Germany, while in Britain blockades of oil refineries and fuel depots have already made hundreds of petrol stations run dry.
The reason for the dissatisfaction is the worldwide price for crude oil, which Monday stayed stubbornly at a 10-year high of around $34 a barrel despite a decision by the OPEC group of oil-producing countries to pump more oil to cool down the market.
Those prices mean extremely expensive petrol at the pump, which transport companies and other users complain has made their businesses unprofitable, especially given the hefty taxes applied to petrol and diesel in Europe.