Consumers won’t benefit from regulation of diesel price, says Energy Department
The Department of Energy doesn’t believe there would be any benefit to the South African consumer if it were to regulate the price of diesel.
The department was in Parliament on Wednesday morning to answer questions on the spike in fuel prices.
It was asked why diesel in the country is not regulated and who determines the price increases.
“If were to regulate diesel, then it could be that the oil majors will say this is what the government wants us to sell it on; therefore that benefit would not be passed onto the consumer," explained the department’s deputy director-general Tseliso Maqubela.
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The department also believes that the market should not "migrate towards the regulation of diesel".
“The fact that diesel is not regulated, allows industry to negotiate hard with the oil companies.
“Diesel is deregulated, actually, in our view we should be seeing differences in the prices of diesel from the different players and in some instances we do see that," he added.
At the beginning of April, diesel saw a sharp increase between 63 cents and 65 cents while fuel increased by R1 a liter.
