Fuel Price drops by 85 cents in SA

The latest fuel price decrease may not bring as much relief to consumers, an independent consumer activist said on Tuesday.

The price of petrol dropped by 85 cents a litre at midnight; the biggest decrease of the year.

Consumer activist Ina Wilken told Eyewitness News that despite the decrease, everything else still costs more.

Wilken said things will not get easier for the consumer any time soon.

“It’s a very difficult time for consumers to even try to save and the problem is the ongoing increase in fuel and the high electricity prices.

“Everything is just increasing all the time.”

Food prices

Wilken confirmed there are no decreases when the fuel price drops.

“The problem is the moment the petrol price increases everything else increases but the retailers just couldn’t be bothered – they’ve already added it to their product and they don’t bother bringing it down.”

The new price of 95 grade petrol in Gauteng fell to R10,82 rand/litre, while the wholesale diesel price decreased by 5.9 percent to R10.11 rand/litre.

Food prices

Wheat farmers in the Overberg claimed that food prices are out of their control as wheat production remains costly.

It is unlikely the latest fuel price drop will see the price of products on the shop shelves decrease.

Riviersonderend farmer Schalk Viljoen said the fuel price will need to drop even more before it has any significant impact.

“We must remember that fuel prices increased tremendously over the past three months.

“The fuel price might be coming down but it is still high and I don’t foresee that we can produce cheaper in the near future.”

Viljoen said the bread price might even go up.

“Bread prices will probably increase because internationally higher wheat prices make our prices go up as well and that‘s because of the panic state in America due to the drought.”

(Edited by Clare Matthes)

Source : iAfrica.com
Tags : fuel, fuel price, petrol, petrol price, petrol news, petrol price decrease,food prices