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AfriForum yesterday in a letter called on Enoch Godongwana, the Minister of Finance, to make the temporary fuel levy cut permanent and not end it on 1 July as planned. In March, the organisation asked the Minister to cut the fuel levy rather than increase it, as initially planned, to help cushion the impact of surging oil prices due to conflict in the Middle East.

AfriForum welcomed the Minister’s decision to implement such a cut on 31 March. This fuel levy cut is however only of a temporary nature and is set to end on the first day of July. AfriForum now urges the Minister to make this fuel levy cut permanent, which would be the ideal move, or to at least extend its implementation period considerably, seeing as oil prices remain high and further shocks in the near future are very likely.  

According to Ernst van Zyl, Head of public relations at AfriForum, the temporary nature of the fuel levy reduction risks simply postponing the price pressure on South African consumers, businesses and the economy, rather than helping them leapfrog this surge in prices altogether. It is therefore imperative to make the cut permanent or at least extend it considerably.

“The situation in the Middle East remains at a knife’s edge and one would be naïve to think the global economy is out of the woods. Major price shocks are still a very real risk. It’s the government’s responsibility to help consumers and the economy avoid this pain as effectively as possible and not simply to postpone the impact for a short while,” concludes Van Zyl.

Issued by AfriForum