KUALA LUMPUR (March 8): Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas is confident that the B10 biodiesel programme would be implemented this year.

"We have been doing an extensive consultation with stakeholders to make sure our implemented policies will be accepted; that explains why it takes us a bit of time to finalise the papers and to get final decision from the cabinet on the implementation," Uggah said after the Palm & Lauric Oils conference today.

He added that Malaysia has sophisticated facilities to implement the B10 biodiesel programme; however, some testing and discussions need to be carried out before the implementation.

He also said that the authority is in consultation with one or two stakeholders, but he declined to reveal who are the stakeholders. He declined to give the exact timeline of the implementation as well.

On France's plan to impose palm oil tax, Uggah is also confident that the French government will stand by its bilateral policy with Malaysia, to assure the Malaysian palm oil industry is being traded fairly.

"We are monitoring it very closely, we are working with Indonesian counterparts to convey our protests French government on the implementation," Uggah said, adding that the government is doing whatever it can to make sure the bill will not be passed.

The French Parliament had on Jan 21 approved a bill that would raise the import tax of palm oil from 100 euros per tonne to 300 euros per tonne from 2017, and eventually up to 900 euros per tonne.

For Uggah, this is the most unfair policy that would kill the palm oil industry.

Meanwhile, Uggah asserted that export tax will be enforced to 4.5% when the crude palm oil (CPO) price touches RM2,250 per tonne, thus, a decision will be made in April based on the CPO average price in March.

Based on Malaysian Palm Oil Council, the settlement of March was RM2,537 per tonne at noon.