KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is reviewing an existing windfall tax on the palm industry and hopes to complete it next year, plantations and commodities minister Fadillah Yusof said on Monday.
Planters in Malaysia, the world's second largest producer of palm oil, have for years asked the government to reassess the tax rate and the threshold for the windfall profit tax.
Malaysia currently imposes a windfall levy of 3% on palm oil prices above 3,000 ringgit ($640.48) per tonne in Peninsular Malaysia and above 3,500 ringgit per tonne in Sabah and Sarawak - the largest palm oil producing states in the country.
Fadillah, who was responding to a parliamentary question on taxes "burdening" the industry, did not provide details of the review.
The matter would be discussed with the ministry of finance, he said. ($1 = 4.6840 ringgit) (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Martin Petty and Muralikumar Anantharaman)