This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Following the release on Wednesday of July consumer price index (CPI) data, trade union Solidarity spoke out against the high tax rate levied on fuel.
The data from Statistics SA indicated that fuel and food were the items with the highest price rises. Both fuel and food were higher than the headline CPI rate of 4.6%, with fuel “becoming alarmingly more expensive with a rate of 15.2%, completely strangling consumers”. According to Solidarity, the high fuel price is one of very few figures that could be directly influenced by the state. It pointed out that not only would the fuel price be affected by reducing the fuel levy, but also other prices such as food prices, because it would be significantly cheaper to supply products to consumers. “People must travel, and people must eat. To incur these costs is unavoidable. Almost all products and services are also dependent on transportation. The effect of the fuel price thus has a larger impact and is thus more important than the direct impact thereof on the consumer. The increase of this leads to the economy shrinking and consumers becoming poorer in reality,” said Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI). In his view, the total tax of R6,26 on fuel was much too high and it could be adjusted downwards to provide immediate relief and promote economic growth. Noting that the total tax on a litre of petrol had been R2,61 in 2011, Du Buisson argued that the current rate was “completely insane” and that the government must intervene to take the necessary steps to alleviate the country’s burden.
- Read Solidarity’s press statement on the above at Solidarity News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page