Johannesburg – The daily under-recovery exceeded 100 cents
per litre (c/l) to reach 100.661 c/l on January 29 compared with an
over-recovery of 3.855 c/l on the first day of this year.
The change in the daily petrol price has largely been due to
the weakening rand which moved from R8.5148 per US dollar on January 1 to
R9.0675 on January 29.
The department of minerals and energy is therefore likely to
implement a retail petrol price increase of about 42 cents per litre (c/l) on
February 6‚ provided the daily under-recovery remains near the January 29
level.
The wholesale diesel (0.05% Sulphur) price could rise by a more subdued
19c/l.
An under-recovery means that the basic petrol price based on
the daily product price and exchange rate is more than the basic fuel price
used in the calculation of the monthly retail petrol price.
An under-recovery therefore implies that the retail petrol
price will most probably be increased at the next monthly price adjustment‚
provided the government does not introduce a new levy or raise either the
wholesale or retail margin.
The retail petrol price is adjusted monthly on the first
Wednesday of the month in accordance with the previous averaging period's over-
or under- recovery.
The current averaging period runs from December 27 to
January 31 and a price announcement is due on February 1.
The average
under-recovery for the period December 27 to January 29 for petrol was 36.9c/l
and the average under-recovery for diesel was 15.7c/l.
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