Other reasons, the department said, was the steep rise in fuel levies and the Road Accident Fund levy of 80.5c per litre, that was determined by finance minister Nhlanhla Nene during his Budget Speech in February.
“There is no need to panic at this stage. Crude oil price fluctuations are not expected to be excessive if major geopolitical conflicts are excluded,” the department said.
On Friday, March 27, the department announced that the price of petrol, diesel, illuminating paraffin and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will increase with effect from Wednesday, April 1.
The price of 95 octone petrol will increase by R1.62 per litre in Gauteng and R1.60 on the coast.
The price per litre of 93 octane petrol will increase by R1.56 inland and R1.54 on the coast.
The price of petrol has decreased by R4.02 since July last year until February 2015 and taking the current increase into account, a litre of petrol is still R1.50 cheaper than it was in April last year.
The price per litre of diesel will increase by between R1.20 on the coast and R1.24, inland.
