Cape Town - Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo says they will continue to assess the situation after the government injected R4.5 billion to mitigate the rise in fuel prices.
He said they will have a better picture in the next few months.
Masondo said the price of petrol would have increased by R4 a litre if the government had not intervened.
The high prices have been pushed by the conflict in Ukraine.
Masondo said when the oil prices continued to surge it also impacted on the currency and it became expensive for South Africa to import, including oil.
The government had to think of ways to address this problem because the war in Ukraine was still raging.
Masondo, who was addressing members of the joint committees on appropriations, said when they present the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in October said they can take measures to protect the fiscus.
They did not want to go outside of the Budget that was presented in February.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will present the MTBPS in October.
Masondo said their intervention helped stave off a massive hike on Wednesday.
“I must indicate that if we did not undertake this measure the fuel price would have probably increased by R4. This was going to affect ordinary people and businesses in a big way not that it was not already because the fuel price is not at the price at which the economy can afford,” said Masondo.
The intervention by the government has stopped a huge hike.
He said the war in Ukraine has influenced the increases in the last few months.
“What would be the impact of this for the fiscus, our estimation is that we will lose R4.5 billion from the fuel levy revenue.
“As to what to do to mitigate this, we will continue to assess the situation and present options in October this year during the MTBPS and announce appropriate measures to ensure the fiscal framework that we presented in 2022 is still intact. It’s also at that point that we will continue looking at different options,” said Masondo.
Political Bureau