Parliament’s appropriations committee adopted its report on a R10 billion fuel price buffer on 8 October, and the bill now waits for a debate in the National Assembly.

The Second Special Appropriation Bill moves R10 billion from the National Revenue Fund to the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR). The money passes to the Equalisation Fund in the Central Energy Fund (CEF), which pays for crude oil and fuel products and works as a cushion against swings in world prices.

Committee chairperson Mmusi Maimane said consumers should get relief straight away because the money is available. Parliament must make sure fuel prices come down “so that citizens can enter December with some relief”, he said.

Money already authorised

The finance minister authorised the R10 billion in March 2026 under section 16(1) of the Public Finance Management Act, according to the bill’s memorandum. The bill asks Parliament to appropriate that money. The memorandum links it to the war in the Middle East, which disrupted oil shipping routes and pushed up crude prices.

It also says the buffer may mean future cuts to the general fuel levy are not needed. The April to June fuel levy relief cost R17.2 billion, Dr Dumisani Jantjies of the Pan-African Institute for Fiscal and Policy Studies (PA-IFS) told a National Council of Provinces (NCOP) hearing.

The committee asked for detailed spending reports. It recommended that the finance minister and the minister of mineral and petroleum resources ensure that Treasury and the DMPR report to Parliament on future shocks and on when fuel price relief and levy measures would be used.

What the hearings heard

The NCOP appropriations committee held those public hearings on the same day, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group’s record shows. Matthew Parks of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said COSATU fully supported the bill. He asked for the full R10 billion to be used for relief in October and November.

Jantjies said the allocation was defensible but that no trigger, amount, duration, end date or beneficiary had been published. He said the CEF needs the finance minister’s approval before it draws any of the money, and that Treasury had not said whether any had been drawn.

Jantjies also said households would pay twice if the state compensated the industry for under-recoveries that consumers already repay through the slate levy. The DMPR put the slate levy at 87.66c a litre after the petrol and diesel slate ran a negative balance of R10.45 billion at the end of August.

J Britz, a Democratic Alliance (DA) member of the committee for the Eastern Cape, said double recovery had not been demonstrated, but that it was a risk the committee needed to examine and Treasury should investigate.

The October price

The DMPR raised 95 petrol by 333c a litre and 93 by 312c from 7 October, and 0.05% diesel by 284.38c. Brent crude averaged US$101 a barrel over the review period, up from US$87.89, the DMPR said. Jantjies said the increase was passed on in full, without relief.

A litre of 95 in Gauteng now costs R30.25, the Fuels Industry Association’s table shows. Our earlier reports cover the November outlook and how the fuel price is set.

The committee said its report would be scheduled for debate in the National Assembly. Finance minister Enoch Godongwana delivers the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in the National Assembly on Wednesday 21 October, Parliament said.