Government is to unveil new measures to mitigate the impact of the high petrol and fuel prices on the country’s citizens.
South Africans have been outraged by the massive increase in fuel prices including the one per cent tax hike which government has introduced to prop-up its dwindling coffers.
The ANC has made an impassioned plea to government to alleviate the financial pressure that the high fuel price has caused among the working class.
Addressing the BRICS business breakfast in Pretoria President Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to businesses not to hike prices in response to the fuel price increase and urged them to await government intervention.
“As a responsible government we will soon be announcing a package of measures, to ease the burden of these increases especially on the poor people in our country.”
“Some of these measures will include the finalisation of the VAT exempt product and we call on retailers that they should hold back from imposing increases on food items and items that people use.”
Meanwhile Energy Minister Jeff Radebe says government will explore various means to cushion South Africans against more increases in fuel prices.
Addressing the media in Pretoria on Friday morning, Radebe says government will speak to oil producing countries to review their production output cuts as this is pushing up oil prices and hurting the economy.
He says South Africa will also seek favourable trading terms for crude oil allocations from oil producing countries.
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