Tue, 05 Feb 2008

JAKARTA (JP): The government has issued a new progressive tax regulation on crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivative products, implementing three main benchmarks based on the Rotterdam commodity market prices on CPO.

The regulation, signed by the finance minister Friday, says that if CPO is priced between US$1,100 and $1,200 per ton in Rotterdam, the tax will be 15 percent per ton.

The tax will increase to 20 percent if the price is $1,200 to $1,300 and 30 percent if the price exceeds $1,300 per ton.

"The current tax rate is still unchanged at 10 percent as the price is still below $1,100 per ton," Deputy for Agriculture and Maritime Sectors of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Bayu Krisnamurthi said, as quoted by Antara on Monday.

Bayu added that the regulation also set new tax rates on the export of CPO's derivative products based on their international prices.

If the international price of a derivative product is below $1,100 per ton, the tax will be one percentage point lower than the export tax on CPO priced at the same benchmark.

If the international price is between $1,100 and $1,200, the tax will be two percentage points lower than the export tax on CPO, which is currently 15 percent.

The new regulation, Bayu said, would result in lower export taxation on CPO derivative products, whose processing demanded high capital investment, such as RBD stearin that would have a cut of 4 percentage points if the price reaches more than $1,100. (uwi/**)