South African motorists will be dealt a heavy blow on Wednesday as the petrol levy cut is reduced from R1,50 per litre to half that figure – 75c a litre.

What will fuel in SA cost?

This means that the price of petrol will increase by R2,37 (93) and R2,57 (95) a litre, along with diesel prices which will increase by R2,31 (0.05% sulphur) and R2,30 (0.005% sulphur) a litre, as announced by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced on Monday.

The price of a litre of 95 octane petrol in Gauteng will be an astonishing 57% more on Wednesday than what it was just one year ago, the increased price being R26,74.

The maximum retail price of LPGas retail price decreases by R2,18/kg, however a litre of paraffin will now cost R1,66 more.

Why the huge increase?

To give some context to this astronomical increase in the price of petrol, April saw government reducing the petrol levy by R1,50 in an attempt to assist motorists and businesses under economic stress due to surging fuel prices. The fuel levy cut has been lowered to just 75c from Wednesday with the full levy coming into effect once again come August.

A large contributor to the volatile and surging fuel prices is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Russia being the world’s third largest producer of crude oil which has now been locked out of Western markets.

With lockdown measures in china having been dropped, too, an increased fuel demand there as well as the increase in the average Brent crude oil price from $115 a barrel to $115,77  have both had an affect on fuel prices.