16/08/2017 (Reuters) - Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm oil producer after Indonesia, will maintain its crude palm oil export tax at 5.5 percent in September, the same rate as the previous month, according to a government circular on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian nation calculated a palm oil reference price of 2,677.91 ringgit ($623.57) per tonne for September. A price above 2,250 ringgit incurs a tax, which starts from 4.5 percent and can reach a maximum of 8.5 percent.

Palm oil benchmark prices fell 1.2 percent to 2,633 ringgit at the close of trade on Tuesday evening.

Malaysia had last lowered the tax to 5.5 percent in August from 6.5 percent in July. ($1 = 4.2945 ringgit)