Municipal tariff increases in July 2026 came in at roughly double headline inflation, which is why a budget built on the inflation number is already short. Electricity rose 8,1%, water 10,2%, sewerage 7,8%, refuse removal 4,7% and property assessment rates 4,9%, on the Stats SA July 2026 consumer price figures. Headline inflation over the same period was 4,3%.
That gap is the whole problem. A property portfolio or a body corporate that set its year against a headline number of four and a bit per cent has under-provided on the two lines it cannot switch off. Water and electricity are not discretionary spend, and they went up first.
One qualification before you use any of these numbers, because it changes what they are for. These are national CPI averages across the municipalities Stats SA surveys. They are not your council's approved tariff, and the spread around them is wide: the same release read regionally puts electricity nearer 10% in Mpumalanga and water at 10,1% in the Eastern Cape. Treat the national figure as the benchmark you test your own account against, not as the increase you were charged.
The numbers, and what moved against last year
Most of the tariff categories rose by less this year than last, which is the good news buried in the release. Electricity was up 8,1% in 2026 against 10,4% in 2025. Water rose 10,2% against 12,1%, and refuse removal 4,7% against 6,6%.
Two lines went the other way. Sewerage rose 7,8% in 2026 against 6,5% in 2025, and property assessment rates rose 4,9% in both years. Sewerage is the one to watch on a large residential or industrial site, because it is usually billed off water consumption and therefore inherits the water increase on top of its own.
Why your contractor's quote moved too
Fuel is the other half of the story and it reads in two directions at once. Diesel fell 11,7% between June and July 2026 and petrol fell 7,1%, which pulled annual fuel inflation down to 20,6% from 34,3%. That is a real drop and it will show up in quotes.
The annual comparison is the one that matters for a budget set last year. Diesel is still 28,8% more expensive than it was a year ago and petrol 19,3% more expensive, on the same Stats SA release. Every callout, every plant hire day and every delivery to your site is priced through that number.
So when a maintenance quote comes in above last year's rate, there are two components and they behave differently. The tariff and fuel portion is a market price that your contractor cannot control and can evidence. The labour, margin and preliminaries portion is a commercial position, and it is the part worth a conversation.
The check that separates them
Ask for the quote to be split. Not a discount, a split. Any contractor pricing honestly can show you the fuel, plant and material component separately from the labour and margin component, and the ones who refuse are usually telling you something.
Do it on a job you have run before, so you have a comparison. A callout that cost R4 800 last winter and R5 400 this winter is a 12,5% move. The tariff and fuel numbers above tell you how much of that is defensible, before anyone has to argue about it.
What this does to a reserve or a capital plan
Rising tariffs and a project pipeline pull on the same pocket, and municipalities are in the same squeeze. Johannesburg Water's Erand Tower and Pump Station in Midrand is roughly 95% complete and temporarily suspended because the allocated contract budget was exhausted, partly through project cost escalations. The utility has started a statutory approval process to secure additional funding.
Read that as a warning about your own capital plan rather than as news about somebody else's. A project costed eighteen months ago at eighteen month old prices is a project that stops at 95% too, and stopping at 95% costs more than starting late.
On Monday
Take last year's actual municipal account for one building. Apply 8,1% to the electricity line, 10,2% to water, 7,8% to sewerage, 4,7% to refuse and 4,9% to rates, then compare the total against what you budgeted. Do the biggest building first. The variance you find on one account, multiplied across the portfolio, is the number to take to the next budget meeting, and it is a stronger argument than any adjective.
Then pull your council's own approved tariff schedule for 2026/27 and redo the same building against the real percentages. Every municipality publishes one. Where your council came in above the national average, the first calculation understated your problem, and it is better to find that in August than in February.
Then do the same on the maintenance line, because that one carries fuel rather than tariff. Arabella sits between the client and the contractor pricing the work. That is the vantage point from which you can say which part of a higher quote is diesel at 28,8% above last year, and which part is somebody testing the client. What that looks like in practice is on the client page, and the cost reading behind this piece sits in insights.
