In a bid to strip government off its power to prescribe the price of petroleum products, The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted a fuel price deregulation bill to Parliament to amend the Petroleum Products Act.
The DA is putting pressure on parliament to fast track the introduction of legislation to promote greater competition at fuel stations and hopefully but brakes on the rising fuel prices that are affecting the people of South Africa.
The latest steep announcement of the increase in the price of petrol and diesel by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has left the people of South African dejected at the ever-rising cost of living.
The price of petrol increased by R2.57 per litre, diesel went up by R2.31 and paraffin increased by R1.66 per litre.
The party’s mineral resource and energy spokesperson, Kevin Mileham, says the DA will publish its intention to introduce the bill in the Government Gazette later this week, that way people would have a look at the bill and give input.
Mileham said the ruling party has to take the blame for the rising fuel prices, saying the success and failures of the fuel prices lies with the ruling party and that is the African National Congress (ANC).
“Given that South Africans will wake up to another hefty fuel price increase that will take the fuel well beyond R25 a litre on Wednesday, the primary objective of the bill is to deregulate the fuel sector to increase competition in fuel price setting at both wholesale and retail level, which will result in lower prices for customers as retailers compete to win customers based on price levels.