Petrol – these are the big price hikes hitting South Africa this week

Here is what you can expect to pay from 3 April:

95 Petrol R16.13
93 Petrol R15.95
0.05% Diesel R14.88

The 1st of April marks the start of the financial year for many businesses and is historically the date when government institutes a number of new taxes.
While this will mean some good news – including the zero-rating of some items such as sanitary pads and bread flour – the most notable changes are the new increases you can expect to see from this week.
In the public sector this will include new fuel taxes and electricity increases, while in the private sector DStv has also announced price increases.
These price hikes will be particularly hard for some South Africans who are still recovering from the effects of load shedding and a difficult year for the economy.

BusinessTech looked at some of the most notable increases below and how they will impact your finances.

Fuel taxes
On Sunday (31 March), energy minister Jeff Radebe announced the adjustment of fuel prices for April 2019, with motorists to be hit hard as a result of rising global oil prices, a weaker rand and the introduction of new fuel taxes.

“April is an important month in the fuel price calendar to revise road and pipelines tariffs as well as fuel and Road Accident Fund (RAF) levies, to be implemented into the price structures of petrol, diesel and Illuminating paraffin (IP),” the Department of Energy said.
“Their total contributions to the fuel price increase is about 26.00c/l in Gauteng whilst the international factors amounted to about 106.00c/l on petrol and 56.00c/l on diesel and IP,” it said.
The fuel prices for April 2019 will be adjusted as follows in Gauteng:

Petrol (93 Octane): R1.34 increase;

Petrol (95 Octane): R1.31 increase;

Diesel (0.05% sulphur): 81.70 cents;

Illuminating Paraffin (wholesale): 63 cents.