Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 9, 2016.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is confident of implementing the much touted B10 biodiesel programme this year, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

The B10 biodiesel refers to a blend of 10% palm oil or palm methyl ester (PME) and 90% of diesel.

“We have been undertaking extensive consultations with all the stakeholders to ensure the acceptance of the policy that will be implemented. This is taking us a bit of time to finalise the papers and to get [a] final decision from the Cabinet on its implementation,” Uggah told reporters after delivering a keynote address at the Palm and Lauric Oils Price Outlook Conference and Exhibition 2016 (POC 2016) here yesterday.

He said Malaysia has the facilities to make the new blend of biodiesel as soon as a decision is made. However, some testings needed to be done and final discussions needed to be carried out before its implementation.

Uggah declined to give a specific timeline for the implementation.

On France's plan to impose progressive tax on all palm oil-based products, Uggah said it is an “unfair policy that would kill the palm oil industry”.

“We are monitoring it very closely; we are working with our  Indonesian counterparts, to convey our protests  to the 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.

“However, we are confident that the French government will stand by its bilateral policy with Malaysia, to ensure that the Malaysian palm oil industry is being treated fairly,” he added.

The French Parliament on Jan 21 approved a bill that will see its palm oil tax amount to €300 (RM1,359) per tonne for 2017, €500 per tonne for 2018, €700 per tonne for 2019 and €900 per tonne for 2020, from €103 per tonne currently.

On the implementation of export tax for palm oil, Uggah said, it would only be enforced in April if average CPO prices in March reached RM2,250 per tonne.

“We will see the price for March and determine the tax in April. As soon as the price touches RM2,250, the tax rate will be at 4.5%,” he said. The benchmark May contract closed down 17 points to RM2,520 per tonne yesterday.

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