Latest increase in the price of fuel - parliamentary statement
(1 March 2005)The average South African commuter depends on motor vehicles, mostly taxis, for transport. Due to historic spatial planning most commuters are many kilometres removed from places of work as well as commercial and governmental services. In the absence of reliable and adequate public transport millions of commuters are forced to pay transport fees directly related to the price of fuel. These increases in the price of fuel eat into household incomes and compete with basic necessities like food. To add insult to injury, higher fuel prices will result in higher prices for basic household goods because most retailers make use of the country’s roads to transport their goods. Thus South African households, especially the working classes and the poor, watch helplessly as their real disposable income shrinks.
It is insufficient to blame international oil prices and the exchange rate, when the Minister of Finance only last week announced a 10 cent per litre increase in the fuel levy, whilst import parity pricing and the “in bond landed cost” further artificially inflates the price.
These fuel price increases result in untold suffering, it is time to review the system by which the price is determined.
