The government will maintain the current zero export tax on crude palm oil (CPO) for February as the base price is below RM2,250 a tonne.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok said  with the way the current trend has been going, the CPO export tax would be zero next month.

“From the trend of the prices, the export tax will still be the same in February and there will be another month of tax-free CPO if the price does not reach RM2,250 a tonne,” he told reporters after opening the Palm Oil Review and Outlook Seminar 2013 in Kuala Lumpur today.

Dompok said the government would make the official announcement on the final crude palm oil export tax for February in the next few days.

The Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry announced in October that effective Jan 31, 2013, the CPO export tax rate will be between 4.5 percent and 8.5 percent, depending on the prevailing CPO price, and will be fixed on a monthly basis for Malaysia to stay competitive.

In addition, the government also abolished the CPO duty-free scheme.

On reports that Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, was considering reducing export taxes to boost competition with Malaysia, Dompok said that it was part of their strategy.

“Currently, we haven’t engaged our counterpart on this and my latest meeting with Indonesian representative was its trade minister.

“Our meeting was in Thailand for rubber that we both agreed that there are a lot of good things can be done through cooperation on supply management and price stabilisation,” he said, adding that so far nothing has been finalised between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, in conjunction with the seminar, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) launched two interactive portals on oil extraction rate (OER) performance and e-Labour.

The OER performance is a portal containing detailed, transparent and accurate OER information on a montly basis, while the e-Labour is an online system developed for ease of reporting of information on labour in the palm oil industry.

- Bernama