Cape Town- As of Wednesday (July 4) South Africans are paying even more for their fuel than in June.

The recent hike came after midnight when petrol and diesel respectively increased by 23 cents a liter, hiking the price to R16.02  for petrol inland, R15.43 coastal and R14.44 for the 50ppm diesel – the highest prices in South African history.

Most South Africans do not understand why they are paying more for fuel than their neighbours when said neighbours get their fuel supply from our country.

GlobalPetrolPrices.com explains the process on how you end up paying for fuel and the various price differences.

The average price of fuel around the world is R16 per liter.

As a general rule, more affluent countries have higher prices while poorer countries and the countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices.

One notable exception is the United States which is an economically advanced country but has low fuel prices.

The differences in prices across countries are due to the various taxes and subsidies for fuel. All countries have access to the same petroleum prices of international markets but then decide to impose different taxes. As a result, the retail price of petrol is different.