Johannesburg - The petrol price is to go up by the single biggest price hike in the history of regulated petrol prices.
The department of minerals and energy announced on Friday that the retail price of all grades of petrol will rise by between 68 cents and 69 cents per litre from Wednesday April 4.
The price was widely expected to go up between 60c and 70c a litre.
This adds to last month's 24c motorists had to fork out for a litre of petrol.
The price of 95 octane petrol was set to increase 68c per litre, while that of 93 and 91 octane would increase 69c respectively.
The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 95 octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to 667c/l and to 643c/l at the coast, reports I-Net Bridge.
Although it's the single biggest increase in the litre price of petrol - the second biggest increase according to Fin24 data was 42c a litre in early 2004 - it is still short of the record 692c/litre reached in August last year.
The wholesale price of diesel 0.05% sulphur will increase by 38c a litre and that of 0.005% sulphur will rise by 37c a litre on the same date.
The wholesale price of illuminating paraffin will rise by 30.9c/l, while the single maximum national retail price of illuminating paraffin will increase by 41c/l.
During the period under review - March 2 to March 29 - the average international product price of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin increased.
The rand/US dollar exchange rate weakened when compared with the previous period and averaged 7.3841 compared with 7.1956 in the previous period.
The minister of minerals and energy has approved the implementation of a Single Maximum National Retail Price for Illuminating Paraffin with effect from 2 April 2003.
The Single Maximum National Retail Price for Illuminating Paraffin will change on a monthly basis from the first Wednesday of each month and will also be promulgated in the Government Gazette.
The Single Maximum National Retail Price with effect from April 4
2007 to May 1 2007 will be 602c/l compared with 561c/l from March 7 2007 to April 3 2007, that is an increase of 41c/l.
The minister of finance, in his Budget Speech on February 23 2007, announced an increase of 5c/l in Fuel Tax and a 5c/l increase in the Road Accident Fund levy applicable on petrol and diesel with effect from April 4 2007.
- I-Net Bridge