The sales of electricity and gas by South African municipalities increased by 24.5% between the quarters ended June and September‚ Statistics SA reported in its quarterly financial statistics of municipalities survey on Tuesday.
In monetary terms this translated from R17.2bn in the quarter ended June to R21.5bn in the quarter ended September.
The survey covers local‚ district‚ and metropolitan municipalities.
The results are used to estimate gross domestic product and its components as well as to assist the public sector with policy formulation and the financial analysis of municipalities.
The survey involved all 278 municipalities.
It found that purchases of electricity and gas by municipalities rose by 33.9% over the period to R16.7bn in the quarter ended September from R12.4bn the quarter before.
Purchases of water decreased by 5.8% between the two quarters‚ while an increase of 8.9% was recorded for the sales of water over the same period.
The survey also showed that the property‚ plant and equipment of municipalities increased by 0.4% between the two quarters. - I-Net Bridge