Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, indicated that fuel station employee wages could be in the crosshairs in the state’s Fuel Price Intervention Plan (FPIP).
Government is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of the fuel price formulae, mainly focusing on the impact of the General Fuel Levy (GFL) and Road Accident Fund (RAF) Levy on fuel costs.
Whereas the price of unleaded petrol 95 octane in Gauteng is R22.34 per litre, the actual fuel price excluding these levies is R16.20 per litre.
However, it now appears that forecourt employee salaries – which are responsible for just 3.1% of the total pump price of petrol 95 – are also under consideration.
“Over the past five years, this component of worker wages has increased cumulatively by 29%,” said Mantashe.
“The critical question confronting all of us is maintaining a delicate balancing act between workers’ wages, industry margins, and the impact on the consumer.”
The wording of the latter statement suggests that the committee working on the FPIP could be targeting worker wages and profit margins of station owners to lower fuel costs rather than compromising on taxes.
This, while taxes and levies account for an average of 27-30% of the prices we see at the pump, whereas retail and wholesale margins only take up 17% of the prices of petrol and 5% of diesel.
Apart from employee wages, these margins are also earmarked for operational expenses such as property rent, interest, and overheads.
It’s unlikely that these margins will be cut as the social cost could be tremendous, but they may be subjected to less dramatic increases going forward.
Mantashe previously indicated that the FPIP will be concentrated on separating the various elements in the fuel price structure from the Basic Fuel Price so that motorists could easily see what the propellants actually cost.
“Included in the discussions of fuel prices, are discussions on, but not limited to, the General Fuel and the Road Accident Fund levies,” said the Minister.
“In the fuel price, there is the General Fuel Levy, there is the Road Accident Fund Levy linked to the price of fuel. Our argument is that you are distorting the price of fuel. Let’s find a formula of separating them and have the price of fuel visible, and when there is intervention in the fuel price, we can see it.”
As of March 2025, the various elements included into the price of fuels in South Africa are:
| Input | Petrol 93 | Petrol 95 | Diesel 0.05% | Diesel 0.005% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale margin | 73.70c/l | 73.70c/l | 94.99c/l | 94.99c/l |
| Secondary storage | 38.00c/l | 38.00c/l | 38.00c/l | 38.00c/l |
| Secondary distribution | 18.80c/l | 18.80c/l | 18.80c/l | 18.80c/l |
| Retail margin | 299.50c/l | 299.50c/l | 0.00c/l | 0.00c/l |
| Zone differential in Gauteng | 82.80c/l | 82.80c/l | 82.80c/l | 82.80c/l |
| IP Tracer levy | 0.00c/l | 0.00c/l | 0.50c/l | 0.50c/l |
| Fuel levy | 396.00c/l | 396.00c/l | 384.00c/l | 384.00c/l |
| Customs & excise duty | 4.00c/l | 4.00c/l | 4.00c/l | 4.00c/l |
| RAF levy | 218.00c/l | 218.00c/l | 218.00c/l | 218.00c/l |
| Petroleum products levy | 0.33c/l | 0.33c/l | 0.33c/l | 0.33c/l |
| Slate levy | 0.00c/l | 0.00c/l | 0.00c/l | 0.00c/l |
| Pump price | 2,209.00c/l | 2,234.00c/l | 2,016.05c/l | 2,020.45c/l |
How much petrol attendants earn
The latest increase to fuel station employee salaries came in September 2024.
Mantashe at the time approved an increase of 5.3c/l to the fuel retail margin, from 285.70c/l to 291.00c/l, to accommodate the wage increases.
As such, service station cashiers now earn R43.15 an hour, or R1,941.75 a week, while forecourt attendants get R43.61 an hour, or R1,962.45 a week.
Like in previous years, the retail margin hike had a near negligible impact on the month’s fuel price adjustments and the reason for it – to keep salaries in line with inflation – can easily be justified.
The same can not be said for historic changes in taxes and levies, however.
The graphic below, as compiled by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), shows the value of the various elements in fuel prices over the last decade:
While the GFL and RAF Levy have been frozen since 2021 as part of a relief measure intended to reduce their financial burden on motorists, they keep occupying a noticeable portion of the prices we see at the pumps.
Additionally, in the years they were hiked, they saw far bigger increases on average than margins, ranging anywhere from a 15c to a 30c per litre adjustment for the GFL, and a 5c to a 50c per litre change to the RAF Levy.
Broadly speaking, the GFL was inflated to boost government revenue, while the RAF Levy grew to support the Road Accident Fund in fulfilling its public mandate.
Noble reasons indeed, had corruption and wasteful expenditure not been pertinent issues in both government and the RAF.
Outa argues that a reduction of the GFL and RAF Levy, or the complete removal of these taxes, would undoubtedly result in lower fuel prices, however, it would probably lead to higher taxes in one or more other areas, such as VAT or income tax.
“Given our current state of affairs, the only other way we could manage such a drastic reduction in taxation would be to remove the wasteful expenditure caused by maladministration and corruption throughout all levels of government, combined with trimming the fat of a bloated administration, which is hardly likely to happen in the next few years,” said Outa.
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