Robert Laing

Robert Laing

A way for motorists to trim a few cents off Wednesday's petrol price hike is to shop around for a pump with "X10" written on it.

These are the older pumps which cannot handle more than three digits. Gauteng motorists could save two cents, while coastal drivers could enjoy a saving of three cents by buying petrol from one of these older pumps.

Now that petrol has clocked into four digits - with inland 93 octane costing R10,62 and coastal 95 octane R10,53 a litre - the Department of Minerals and Energy has ruled that the older pumps will be set to 106 cents and 105 cents respectively to be multiplied by 10 for the bill.

Inland drivers were hit with a 79 cents a litre hike in 93 octane and coastal drivers a 81 cents a litre increase in 95 octane.

Diesel is going up 68,4 cents per litre, its lowest price jump since February. This takes the inland wholesale price of standard diesel to R11,49 per litre.

Government allows garages to set their own dealers' margin for diesel.

The wholesale price of paraffin goes up 54,4 cents per litre on Wednesday, taking the inland price which retailers may add a margin of up to 73 cents on to R9,55, nearly double the R4,99 in July last year.

The paraffin price not only affects poor households without electricity but also airlines since jet fuel tracks the paraffin price.

The latest price rise takes the yearly inflation in diesel to 80percent and petrol to 50percent.