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BusinessLive reports that Department of Energy deputy director-general Tseliso Maqubela told MPs on Tuesday that deregulation of the fuel price would lead to 50‚000 job losses and would not necessarily result in lower prices.
MPs were being briefed MPs on how the fuel price was set and what could be done to lower it. The fuel price is regulated by the Department of Energy and adjusted monthly according to market conditions‚ including the price of crude oil and the rand-dollar exchange rate. Apart from the price of crude oil‚ the determination also includes margins for wholesalers‚ retailers and for storage and distribution; the fuel levy; and various other levies and duties. The retail margin‚ which is mostly used to pay wages of petrol pump assistants‚ is at present 187 cents of the total R16 a litre price. “If you deregulate‚ owners could opt for self-service and we would lose those 50‚000 jobs overnight. From where we stand‚ we don’t think that is a sustainable position. There is also no guarantee that the price would come down‚” Maqubela said.
- Read this report by Carol Paton in full at Timeslive
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