from avdfn27 Oct 2011 08:17
leedskier - 26 Oct'11 - 19:19 - 3549 of 3550
Is this the reason for the interest over the last two days?
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/business/article/indonesia-malaysia-to-review-crude-palm-oil-export-taxes/
Indonesia, Malaysia to review crude palm oil export taxes
October 21, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to review their respective crude palm oil export taxes for the mutual benefit of the top two producers of vegetable oil, Malaysian government and industry sources told Reuters today.
The decision was made on the sidelines of a bilateral meeting yesterday between Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the Indonesian island of Lombok.
“This is a preliminary step. Both countries will review their respective tax structures and come up with a solution that will benefit one another,” said a Malaysian government official with knowledge of the matter.
“Now the respective ministries that look at the palm oil tax issue will have to sit down and work out the details,” added the source, who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Malaysia imposes a very high crude palm oil export tax to protect its refining industry — the largest in the world — but this mechanism has gone awry after Indonesia changed its own tax structure to jump start idle processors.
With Jakarta slashing refined palm oil export duties and raising the tariffs for the crude grade to keep more of it in the country for processing, Malaysia gets limited imports from Indonesia to shore up its lower raw material output.
Malaysia now has to deal with higher domestic crude palm oil prices, inflated due to the prohibitive export taxes it imposes on the grade and limited estate expansion.
A Malaysian industry source said one of the options Kuala Lumpur was exploring included reducing its extremely high crude palm oil export tax to be on par with Indonesia’s, making local crude palm oil cheaper to process.
Indonesia set its crude palm oil export tax at 15 per cent in November.
“The high export tax for crude palm oil in Malaysia inflates the local prices and makes it even more expensive for refiners after what Indonesia did to its export tax structure,” said the Malaysian industry source.
“Of course, any changes in the crude palm oil export tax should be done in tandem with Indonesia so small farmers in both countries will still benefit,” the source added.
Jakarta is also under pressure from its planters and smallholders who say the recent tax change forces them to pay more to ship the crude grade overseas compared to the refined palm oil.
Indonesian industry officials say with the rejigged export taxes, small farmers now have little incentive to replant and maintain their estates and the higher export tax for cr