Levies: state ‘all talk, no action’

FUEL TAX: OUTA DECRIES FAILURE TO REMOVE IMPEDIMENTS

- Ina Opperman

Government should act and speak less when it comes to fuel tax cuts but, on the other hand, how will government replace that revenue if it does get around to doing that? Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, said at the Africa Oil Week yesterday that government was discussing ways to reduce fuel costs, including lowering the fuel levy and the Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy.

He said petrol should cost R14 per litre.

However, Wayne Duvenage, CEO of Outa, does not believe him. "The public has been listening to politicians talk about removing the tax components to lower the price of petrol for many years now, but nothing has really come from these not-so-bright suggestions.

"The only relief the public has seen was a brief reduction in the general fuel levy in 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up the oil price, which sent the basic fuel price component of our petrol price soaring."

He says it is all very well to speak of a petrol price of R14 per litre, but that would require the minister of finance to remove the general fuel levy, which is currently R3.85, and the RAF levy, which is now R2.18 per litre.