3/19/05 - Indonesia is lobbying hard with the Indian government to cutthe latter's palm oil import duty by 20 percentage points, a seniorIndonesian government official said Friday.

"Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Aproyantono will meet FinanceMinister P. Chidambaram Saturday morning and call for import duty cut byat least 20 percentage points on all palm oils," Andy Jaya Dermawan,deputy director of Indonesia's agriculture ministry told.

"Our minister will also meet Commerce Minister Kamal Nath later Saturdayon this issue."

The import duty is 80% on crude palm oil and 90% on RBD palm oil andpalmolein oil.

Aproyantono is here to attend the G-20 ministerial meeting, which endsSaturday.

Earlier reported that Indonesia has already sent a proposal to Nath on thematter.

India imports around 3.5 million tonnes of palm oil annually, with over70% of it coming from Malaysia.