Times Of Swaziland: STEEP FUEL PRICE INCREASE TONIGHT

STEEP FUEL PRICE INCREASE TONIGHT
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BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 08/04/2021 08:08:00


MBABANE – Motorists must once again brace themselves for another steep fuel
price increase at midnight today.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy Principal Secretary,
Dorcas Dlamini, the price of petrol will increase by E1 per litre at midnight
(Thursday, April 8, 2021). The ministry, through a minute released yesterday,
stated that the price of diesel per litre would increase by 80 cents while
paraffin would increase by 50 cents. This means that the price of a litre of
petrol will now be (ULP95) E14.15 and diesel will be at E14.40 per litre with
paraffin falling just under E10, at E9.15 per litre. The last increase was
effected two months ago in February 2021, where there was a 70 cents hike in all
fuel products.
The PS said in the month of March 2021, the brent crude oil prices increased to
an average of US$66.46 a barrel compared to an average of US$65.69 a barrel
realized in the month of February 2021. The high oil prices are primarily a
result of lower crude oil production from the members of OPEC and partners. The
Lilangeni/Dollar exchange rate exacerbated the situation as it depreciated and
averaged E15.01 in the month of March 2021 as compared to the E14.78 realised in
the month of February 2021,” she said. The public was further urged to use
fuel efficiently as the international oil markerts and the Lilangeni/Dollar
exchange rate remained volatile. The country’s increase comes just a day after
neighbouring South Africa also increased its fuel prices by a R1. According to
South Africa’s Central Energy Fund, the latest fuel price was blamed on the
weakened Rand for the latest bout of fuel price hikes.
Depreciated
It was reported that the Rand depreciated against the US Dollar during the
period under review, on average, when compared to the previous period. The
average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate for the period February 26, 2021 to March
30, 2021 was 14.9829 compared to 14.7631 during the previous period, the CEF
reported. It was stated that this led to a higher contribution to the basic fuel
prices on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin.  After the latest
developments on the fuel price hike were officially on the government social
media pages, users made their feelings known through a variety of posts and
questions. Most of them, on both the Facebook and Twitter government pages,
criticised the price hike and argued that it was not the right time to effect
it.