Planters to continue paying cooking oil cess
MUMBAI: Oil palm planters will have to continue paying cooking oil cess despite the government having earlier said the imposition will last for a year at the most.
“We have a cess order still in place, which does not expire on May 31. Until and unless it is de-gazetted, the cooking oil cess collection will go on,” said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin.
He was speaking to reporters after officiating at the launch of the Malaysia-India Palm Oil Trade and Seminar (POTS 2008) held here yesterday.
Also present were Malaysian High Commissioner to India Datuk Tan Seng Sung,
The government collects the cess from planters to help reduce losses for cooking oil manufacturers.
The price of cooking oil is fixed by the government but this is not enough to cover their costs as crude palm oil (CPO) prices are high. Planters have been lobbying against the cess as they argue that they are already paying a lot of taxes.
In fact, among all the major 17 vegetable oils traded in the global market, palm oil is the most heavily taxed, according to Oil World, an industry magazine.
Since June 1 2007, MPOB has been collecting cess of RM2 a tonne of fresh fruit bunches for every RM100 a tonne rise in the CPO price - as long as it stays above RM1,500 a tonne.
By May 31, the MPOB is expected to collect about RM1.5 billion from oil palm planters owning estates bigger than 40ha. The money is being used to compensate cooking oil manufacturers and repackers from January 1 2007.
In response to selected cooking oil manufacturers’ complaints on slow receipt of compensation, Chin said MPOB, as custodian of the cooking oil cess, has to be thorough in its verification of the claims before it can release the money to the right people at the deserving amount.
“To speed up the claims process, refiners should file in the necessary and relevant documents to MPOB,” he added.
