The petrol price puzzle

14 January 2016 - 02:10 By Robert Nicolai, Howick

Oil prices are at their lowest in 12 years, but our rand is not performing well. In January 2004 oil cost $37.66 a barrel, now it costs only $30.44, so the price should have come down a bit, right? Well, in 2004 the rand/dollar exchange rate was R6.73:$1. It is now fluctuating around R16.39, meaning a barrel of oil now costs R498.91 compared to R253.45 when oil was more expensive.In January 2004, a litre of petrol cost R3.69 at the coast as compared to R11.94 now, meaning that, while the oil price only increased by 49.2%, our petrol costs mysteriously escalated by at least 223%.Has the government been using the petrol price to bleed citizens dry?Why are we paying well above oil price-related fees when we should only pay around R5 per litre?..

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