News in Brief

Telkom hikes data tariffs and line rental fees

Telkom has dropped tariffs for fixed-line to cellphone calls by 3.6 percent but increased tariffs for fixed-line local calls and rental fees for home and business fixed lines in its 2012 annual pricing adjustments published yesterday. The company increased overall basic voice and data service costs by 1.2 percent on average, adding the rise was well below the consumer inflation rate of 5.7 percent. The new prices take effect at the beginning of August. PrepaidFone local calls increase by 5 percent for the period but long-distance calls will not change. Customers will have to fork out 6 percent more for prepaid line rental contracts. Installation charges will rise by the same amount for postpaid, PrepaidFone, ISDN and DSL services. Costs of data connectivity products will increase overall by 1 percent. During the year to March, fixed-line traffic revenue fell 8 percent and fixed-line revenue declined 2.8 percent. – Asha Speckman

Producer price inflation steady

Producer price inflation remained unchanged at 6.6 percent in May this year from April, Statistics SA said yesterday. Sectors with the most notable increases in annual rates from a month before included mining and quarrying (from 7.6 percent in April to 8.4 percent in May), paper and paper products (4.5 percent to 5.8 percent), chemicals and chemical products (4.2 percent to 4.9 percent), metal products (7.7 percent to 8 percent), beverages (4.5 percent to 5.7 percent), and non-metallic mineral products (7.1 percent to 7.8 percent). – Sapa

Transnet debt sale to raise R4.2bn

Transnet might raise $500 million (R4.2 billion) to $1.5bn selling international bonds, chief executive Brian Molefe said yesterday. Proceeds from the sales would be used to augment Transnet’s cash resources, he said. The issues would be done “sometime this financial year”, Molefe said. – Bloomberg