The Department of Minerals and Energy has confirmed that the price of petrol for December was over-calculated by six cents a litre.
It means the December price at the pumps will be 75 cents a litre more and NOT 81 cents a litre more as was previously stated.
The December price increase was effective from 00h00 on 1 December and department spokesperson Robert Maake says all role players have been alerted to the error.
"The error was corrected this morning in fact, the oil companies were given the instruction to correct their pumps as well. Some might take a little bit of time to correct but it should be effective now," said Maake.
He said the error had been picked up in terms of the wage allocation for petrol attendants in the fuel price which had already been factored in back in September.
The adjusted price of Diesel has not been affected and went up between 72.5 cents a litre and 74.5 cents a litre while illuminating paraffin went up by 42.2 cents.
The Automobile Association (AA) has already stated that the continued fuel price increases need to be urgently investigated.
It says the error has already caused many South Africans to pay higher prices for fuel than they should have, and that this situation must be rectified.
The error affects the prices of all grades of petrol. The new increase for petrol is therefore 75c/l. Even with the reduced increase, the December fuel price adjustments still push the price of petrol past the R20/l mark.
“The error by the DMRE validates the AA’s call that a total review of the fuel price, and an audit of all the process and components which comprise the fuel price, is necessary. While we appreciate that errors occur, the impact of the fuel price on millions of South Africans cannot be underestimated. This error, in fact, must be the catalyst for such a review,” says the AA.
The AA says the fact that daily fuel price updates are being withheld from the public – and that only the monthly adjustment is now being released, means there is no transparency in the process of fuel price determination.
