Tuesday, October 21, 2008 10:53 PM
(Source: New Straits Times)By Ooi Tee Ching
THE Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) uses only 60 per cent of the cess collected from oil palm planters for its research and development (R&D) enforcement and licensing activities.
It collects cess amounting to RM15 per tonne of palm oil and palm kernel oil produced at mills and crushers in Malaysia. But only RM9 per tonne of palm oil and palm kernel oil is for its own use.
The remaining RM6 per tonne of palm oil and palm kernel oil is for palm oil promotion and price stabilisation.
In a statement issued yesterday, MPOB director general Datuk Dr Mohd Basri Wahid refuted claims by several Sarawak oil palm planters that it was not serving the palm oil sector effectively and failed to carry out its original role as an R&D institution.
He said MPOB collected RM247.24 million from Sarawak oil palm companies, of which 93 per cent or RM230.42 million, was channelled to cooking oil manufacturers under the Cooking Oil Subsidy Scheme. RM16.82 million went to MPOB for its R&D, enforcement and licensing activities.
"MPOB is not a commercial entity. We're not involved in any business ventures nor do we own any subsidiaries that are profit oriented," he said.
Basri said RM2.8 million worth of high yielding oil palm seedlings had been disbursed to smallholders in Sarawak.
MPOB is also collaborating with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak to conduct research on biodiversity and Curtin University Sarawak to harness new technologies in palm oil processing.
(c) 2008 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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