MP meets Minister over palm oil cess
TAWAU:
Following a call by Malaysian Estate Owners Association for the abolition of oil palm cess imposed since June 2007 to subsidise the prices of cooking oil, Tawau Member of Parliament Datuk Chua Soon Bui met Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Chin Fah Kui recently, urging the latter to find an alternative to the cess. Chua said she met Chin on March 10 in Kuala Lumpur to raise the grouses of estate owners over the cess as palm oil producers are also paying 7.5% tax imposed by the State Government. The double taxation is a big burden to many among them, and they hope the Federal Government will abolish it as soon as possible, she said. Chua regretted that no alternative to the imposition of cess in subsidizing cook oil prices has been worked out despite several meetings, dialogues and correspondences between the Minister and the industry players, especially in Tawau and Lahad Datu. She said she would follow up on the good efforts by former Tawau MP Shim Paw Fatt in pursuing the matter in Parliament. “I hope the Minister and his Ministry would seriously consider the proposal made by the industry players in Sabah, especially those in Tawau. It is very unfair indeed to penalize them after they have contributed a lot in promoting the industry in Sabah,” she said.
