The prices of petrol and diesel in the Gauteng zone will decline by 15c/ℓ and 29.78c/ℓ respectively in May, owing to changes in international factors, namely crude oil prices, the rand:dollar exchange rate and the prices of finished products, the Department of Energy (DoE) said on Friday.

The rand depreciated against the dollar from $10.76 to $10.55 during the period under review, contributing to the fuel price decrease, effective May 7.

Locally, price changes were influenced by the reduction of the slate levy – which was collected from motorists to compensate the industry for cumulative under recovery – by 8.78c/ℓ, from 15.36c/ℓ to 6.58c/ℓ, in line with the self-adjusting slate mechanism.

Further, the DoE also announced that the price of illuminating paraffin would decrease by 25c/ℓ while the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) would decrease by 4c/kg.

“The decrease in the price of illuminating paraffin and LPG will benefit households that use these products, as winter approaches,” Energy Minister Dikobe Ben Martins said.