Reduce the fuel levy by R1 per litre now. Poor South Africans can’t pay for government’s failures
24 July 2018
2018 will be remembered as the year in which the ANC government declared war on poor South Africans through relentless tax increases. In addition to a one percentage point increase in VAT to 15%, increases in Income Tax, increases in “sin tax” and an increase in sugar tax, South Africans have been hit with no less than four fuel price increases in four consecutive months, in April, May, June and July – with another increase set for August.
When Cyril Ramaphosa was elected President of South Africa the price of petrol per litre was R14.12. It now costs over R16 per litre to refuel your vehicle with 95 octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng. This equates to, on average, almost R100 more every time you fill your tank. Every cent of this massive increase is absorbed by ordinary South Africans, either directly through increased transport costs, or indirectly by the resulting rising food prices. And it is the poor who bear the brunt of this onslaught as they spend a disproportionately large amount of their income on food and transport.
This is simply not sustainable. Something has to give. Poor South Africans are already stretched to breaking point by a stagnant economy and spiralling unemployment, and there is no sign of this improving any time soon. Our GDP growth figures show that our economy shrunk by 2.2% in the first quarter of 2018 – the highest quarter-on-quarter in almost a decade – and our growth forecast has just been cut from 1.7% to 1.2%. If life wasn’t already hard enough for our most vulnerable citizens, these economic conditions are going to make things even worse. Government cannot expect poor and unemployed South Africans to foot the bill for their mismanagement of our economy.
Government must also know that they cannot continue to blame these fuel price increases on “international markets”, as 33% of our fuel price is made up of two levies: the general fuel levy and the Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy. Currently levies and duties account for R5,30 of every litre of 95 octane petrol, or R265 of every 50L fuel tank.