South African motorists and commuters are in for a bleak holiday season, with both petrol and diesel set to go up by a massive margin in December, pushing the petrol price past R20 per litre for the first time ever.
According to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, both grades of petrol will go up by 81 cents per litre from tomorrow while 50ppm diesel will increase by 74 cents and 500ppm by 72 cents.
Illuminating paraffin will rise by 42 c/l.
The December fuel shocker will see the cost of 95 Unleaded Petrol rising to R19.63 per litre at the coast and R20.35 in the inland regions.
The price of diesel will increase to R17.30 at the coast and R17.92 in Gauteng.
The spike comes as the price of Brent Crude oil increased marginally during the month of October, from an average of $82.50 per barrel to $83.00, reports IOL.
This alone would not have made a big difference to the December fuel price, however, the rand depreciated from an average of R14.72 in the previous month to R15.85 this month, the energy department said.
The Slate Levy, which is used to compensate the industry for cumulative under recovery, also saw an increase of 26.30 c/l.
Fuel taxes and levies currently account for R6.11 per litre of fuel, a fact which is proving increasingly controversial as higher oil prices and a weak rand drive prices up on a monthly basis.