May 03, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1428

JAKARTA, May 2: Indonesia has no plan to raise export tax on palm oil as the government expects domestic prices to ease by 10-12 per cent by June, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

“We are trying to ensure that cooking oil prices ease soon. We are confident that prices will come down below 7,000 rupiah per kg,” Djoko Said Damardjati, director general of processing and marketing at the agriculture ministry, told Reuters.

“We will be happy to see prices between 6,500 and 6,800 rupiah,” he added.

Derom Bangun, executive chairman of Indonesia Palm Oil Producers Association, said producers and the government were discussing a range of additional export duties should the market operation fail to ease cooking oil prices.

Producers proposed an additional export duty of 3 per cent, while the government wants higher duties of 10 per cent for all palm oil products, said Bangun.

“But those are still ideas. We have not yet come up with exact numbers. But until the end of this month it won’t be applied to see how this market operation would succeed,” Bangun said.

“Flow of supply from Indonesia will not be affected,” he said. Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said on Tuesday that palm oil producers have agreed to release 100,000 tons of cooking oil per month to ease local cooking oil prices.—Reuters