9/1/07 JAKARTA (Antara): The Indonesian Palm Oil Businessmen Association (Gapki) has feared that new rule on the use of tankers with double-wall holds would raise the palm oil transportation tariffs by 20 percent.

Therefore, Gapki called on the government to keep lobbying the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to postpone the implementation of the new rule.

"The government should at least lobby IMO asking it to delay the implementation of the rule till 2010," Gapki's executive chairman Derom Bangun was quoted by Antara as saying on Tuesday.

The rule has been taken into effect since Jan. 1, 2007.

Derom said there were only small number of tankers with double-wall holds in Indonesia, thus the implementation of the new rule could trigger an increase in tariffs of palm oil transportations to different destinations.

He predicted the tariff increase would reach about 20 percent depending on the countries to which CPO was delivered.

The CPO transportation tariff to European countries was predicted to increase from US$65 per ton of CPO to US$80 per ton,and the tariff to India and China would be up to US$40 per ton from US$33 per ton, he said. (***)