Martin: Issues affecting S’wak oil palm smallholders will be brought up to Putrajaya
09/03/2023 (The Borneo Post), Kuala Lumpur - Deputy Minister of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Martin Ben has given assurance that the Sarawak government will bring the issues affecting oil palm smallholders to the attention of the federal government.
He said while he acknowledged the taxation issue brought up by the Sarawak Dayak Oil Palm Planters Association (Doppa), finding solutions to address the issue would require intervention by the federal plantation and commodities ministry.
He said providing any form of measures related to taxation matters was under the purview of the federal government.
“Tax is a federal matter but we will bring up all these issues that were brought up by Doppa as an association representing smallholders in Sarawak.
“Their request to provide tax incentives to the smallholders does have a concrete reason. But how do we want to return it (tax incentive) to the smallholders – we need to find a suitable approach on how we can return the percentage from taxation.
“We will discuss with them (the federal plantation and commodities ministry) because tax goes to the federal government. But we will highlight the issues. And hopefully, the ministry will listen,” he said when asked on Doppa’s concern over taxation issues as it has affected the income of oil palm smallholders especially among the native community.
He mentioned this during a press conference after attending a roundtable meeting with Solidaridad, Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), Doppa, and Malaysian Armed Forces Veterans Association (PVATM) Sarawak held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) today.
Elaborating further, Martin opined providing tax incentives to smallholders could be one of the best ways to address the issue.
However, he reiterated, this would need to be discussed with the federal ministry.
“One way, perhaps through production incentives based on the rate of production, and this should be studied by the Ministry of Planning and Commodity.
“That’s what I said, maybe one approach is through incentive, whatever tax collected from smallholders,” he said.
He also said that there is a need to conduct a feasibility study before any form of taxation incentives could be given out to the industry players in the palm oil sector.
“This is because we worry if we give incentives to the smallholders, other players in the industry will want to ask for the big ones too.
“And probably we focus on smallholders. That is just my personal opinion, but we have to raise the issue to the ministry of plantation and commodity,” he said.
During the meeting, Martin witnessed a MoU signing ceremony between four parties – Solidaridad, SEA, Doppa and PVATM Sarawak.
According to a press release by Solidaridad Malaysia, the signing of the MoU will accelerate the market access of sustainable palm oil especially from the indigenous oil palm smallholders in Sarawak.
Through this partnership, oil palm smallholders in Sarawak will receive a series of training on good agricultural practices (GAP) and climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices that can further increase their sustainability, productivity and livelihood.