31/07/2012 (The Nation) - The Cabinet yesterday approved the Finance Ministry's request to extend the deadline of car delivery under the government's policy for first-time car buyers to March next year. However, all first-time car buyers need to submit the required documents to the Excise Tax Department by the end of December. The buyers will also enjoy a tax refund if they hang on to the car for at least a year.

The Cabinet also gave Commerce Ministry the greenlight yesterday to import 30,000 tonnes of crude palm oil next month in order to cover depleting stocks and stop the retail price from climbing further.

Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said the ministry will start to gradually import crude palm oil to reinstate the stocks next month. Initially, the ministry's Public Warehouses Organisation will import 10,000 tonnes of crude palm oil, before refining and bottling it to sell as cooking palm oil. The oil will be imported at Bt30 per kilogram, and retail price will not be allowed to exceed Bt42 per litre bottle.

Manufacturers are backing the government's plan to import crude oil, saying it would help shoulder their burden because the supplies are low. However, Wiwan Boonyaprateeprat, secretary-general to the Oil Palm and Palm Oil Association of Thailand, said the government should import 30,000 tonnes of crude palm oil in the first shipment so it can produce 20 million bottles of cooking palm oil.

She said Thailand only had 120,000 tonnes of crude palm oil in its buffer stocks because the harvest season has ended, while the price of oil palm is climbing continuously. Wiwan said this was the most suitable period to import crude palm oil because the price in Malaysia was only Bt28-Bt29 per kilogram, while the domestic price was quoted at Bt35-Bt36 a kg.