18/04/2016 (Reuters) - Malaysia, the world's second largest palm oil producer after Indonesia, will maintain its crude palm oil export tax at 5 percent in May, a government circular showed on Friday.

The Southeast Asian nation calculated a reference price of2,531.53 ringgit ($649.11) per tonne for May. A price above2,250 ringgit incurs a tax, which starts from 4.5 percent and can reach a maximum 8.5 percent.

Malaysia had last raised its tax on crude palm oil exports to 5 percent for April, ending a duty free policy held since May2015. ($1 = 3.9000 ringgit)