Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, gave his annual budget speech last week.
I wasn’t listening though, as I have far better things to do than to listen to a minster waffle on about things I couldn’t care less about. That’s why financial journalists exist; they listen to what the minister says and translate all the financial mumbo jumbo into short snippets even I can understand.
I’m quite angry this year, because the government is increasing the fuel levy. Once the increases come into effect, I’ll be paying an extra 12c per litre in general fuel levy and an additional 8c towards the road accident fund. This means that the so-called fuel levy now makes up a quarter of the cost of a litre of petrol.
The above will be added to the current fuel price, which is expected to rise again in a few short weeks. It seems we’re finally crossing the R14/l mark. It’s a sad day indeed.
What makes this whole debacle even worse, is the fact that sin tax has been pushed up as well. It’s bad enough that basically everything is going to cost me more, but to push up the price of a can of beer is just plain evil. After a long day at work, I like to relax next to my pool with a can of my favourite beverage. It’s extremely relaxing, but now the government has spoiled that for me as well. They tax our wallets empty and then don’t even have the decency to give us the relief that only a nice cold one can offer.
What hurts me the most, however, is the increase in fuel levy; the same fuel levy that was supposed to pay for road upgrades. Instead, government built those blasted e-toll gantries. You’d think now that they’re so intent on using the user-pays system, the fuel levy would be abolished altogether, but no.
I wonder where all the money garnered by the fuel levy over the last few years went, and I wonder where the extra money it’s going to make from now on will go?