17/06/2008 (Bernama), Bangi - The price of cooking oil will remain subsidised with the imposition of the windfall tax helping to stabilise prices, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said Tuesday.

"The subsidy for cooking oil is still there. The windfall tax imposed on the industry will in turn be used to subsidise the product," Chin said at a press conference after the Malaysian Palm Oil Board's transfer of technology seminar here.

Oil palm companies will start paying the windfall tax beginning next month.

The windfall tax will be imposed on crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil when market prices are over RM2,000 per tonne.

However, palm oil producers in Sabah and Sarawak will be imposed a lower windfall tax of 7.5 percent as compared to 15 percent for those in Peninsular Malaysia.

This is because palm oil producers in Sabah and Sarawak are already paying a sales tax to their respective state governments.

Chin warned all parties, especially millers, not to take advantage of the situation by collecting levy from palm oil producers following the imposition of the windfall tax.

"Millers have no right to start a collection. Action will be taken against anyone guilty of this," he said.