Indonesia denies tax cut for palm oil exports

Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan reconfirmed here Monday that Indonesia will not slash the crude palm oil (CPO) export taxes to compete with its rival producer Malaysia despite the latter has much lower export tariffs. Indonesia, the world's top CPO producer, increased its export tax on crude palm oil to 10.5 percent for March from February's 9 percent, while tariff imposed by Malaysia was only 4 percent for the same delivery period. "We will stick to our decision and not be impacted by Malaysia' s stance. We have the importance to expand our downstream industry, " Minister Gita said, as quoted by Indonesia's news portal Investor Daily. Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers Association (APKASINDO) has repeatedly appealed the government to reduce the export taxes in a bid to maintain its competitiveness against Malaysia, the world's No. 2 CPO producer.