Slate levy: why it rose in November and what it costs you
The slate levy is +136c a litre on petrol and diesel since 4 November 2026, up from +88c. Enter your monthly litres to see what it costs.
Example: 150 litres a month· change a figure to see yours
Slate levy in your month
R204
+136c a litre since 4 November 2026
| At October’s +88c | R131 |
| At the 2026 peak of +158c | R237 |
| A year at today’s rate | R2,445 |
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the estimate is made
The slate is the running balance of all the over- and under-recoveries the fuel industry has carried between price changes. When pump prices lag behind the landed cost, oil companies sell below cost for a few weeks and the slate goes negative; when prices lag on the way down, it recovers. To stop the balance from growing, a self-adjusting slate levy mechanism has applied since 2009: a levy is added to every litre of petrol and diesel only when the slate is negative by more than R500 million, and it adjusts each month with the balance. In 2026 the levy was zero until April. The large under-recoveries of March and April pushed the slate into deficit, and from 6 May 2026 a levy of +123c applied. It peaked at +158c in June, fell to +61c in August and rose again to +136c in November, R204 on 150 litres a month.
Slate levy month by month in 2026
| From | Slate levy | Change | On 150 litres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 January 2026 | 0c | none | R0 |
| 4 February 2026 | 0c | 0c | R0 |
| 4 March 2026 | 0c | 0c | R0 |
| 1 April 2026 | 0c | 0c | R0 |
| 6 May 2026 | +123c | +123c | R184 |
| 3 June 2026 | +158c | +35c | R237 |
| 1 July 2026 | +114c | -44c | R171 |
| 5 August 2026 | +61c | -53c | R92 |
| 2 September 2026 | +83c | +22c | R125 |
| 7 October 2026 | +88c | +4c | R131 |
| 4 November 2026 | +136c | +48c | R204 |
The statement of January 2026 is explicit: “the Slate Levy on petrol and diesel will remain at 0.00 c/l”. That held to April. The under-recoveries that built up in March were too large for the price changes to absorb, and the slate balance went below the R500 million threshold. The levy that followed is the industry being paid back, a few cents a litre at a time.
How the self-adjusting slate levy mechanism works
Each statement reports the cumulative balance of the slate at the end of the previous month. The mechanism, introduced on 7 January 2009 and revised on 7 September 2022, ties the levy to that balance: the deeper the deficit, the higher the levy, by steps set in the Department’s published rules. When the balance comes back above the threshold, the levy returns to zero. Because over-recoveries also flow into the slate, a month when prices are above cost helps reduce the levy that follows.
This is why the levy cannot be forecast from the daily sheets. The daily figures give the over- or under-recovery of the window, but the balance also depends on volumes sold and on adjustments the CEF makes when it closes the month. The December calculator lets you set your own assumption.
From a window gap to a price change
Example: 312c over-recovery· change a figure to see yours
Price change from the gap alone
-312c
-162c once the +150c levy relief ends
| A 50-litre tank, gap alone | -R156 |
| Same tank with the levy back | -R81 |
Slate levy and the levy relief
The November statement shows how the two can cancel out. Petrol received -150c of fuel levy relief, but the slate levy rose by +48c and the under-recovery added +101c, so the pump price moved by -1c. The November page sets out that arithmetic, and the fuel levy page covers the relief itself.