Government’s hidden load-shedding windfall
In the face of continuous and severe load-shedding, companies have been forced to power up generators to keep their doors open. The government makes a pretty penny on every litre of diesel they buy. And offers no form of rebate on those purchases
Nothing about the decades-long mismanagement of Eskom is fair — not the sheltering of senior politicians from the full impact of load-shedding, nor the failure to hold all the post-1998 Eskom board members responsible. Also unfair is that businesses that are now forced to rely on generators to keep their doors open are obliged to make a hefty contribution to state coffers with every litre of diesel they buy.
That contribution from all diesel consumers currently stands at R6.12/l. It’s made up of the general fuel levy of R3.94/l and the R2.18/l contribution to the Road Accident Fund (RAF). That means 37% of the price of every litre of diesel bought ends up in government coffers, including the chronically mismanaged RAF...
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