Its minister, Fadillah Yusof, said the matter was raised by industry players during a dialogue held by his ministry.

“This was one of the things that they raised. They are not objecting to the windfall profit levy, but if it is imposed, they want to look at how the levy can benefit the industry, including in terms of incentives and programmes such as oil palm replanting,” he said.

Fadillah said this to reporters after the launch of the 4th Palm Biodiesel Conference and the flag-off ceremony of Petronas’s first palm biodiesel B100-fuelled road tanker here today.

Yesterday, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) urged the government to raise the windfall profit levy price by RM500 per tonne of crude palm oil (CPO) to RM3,500 per tonne for Peninsular Malaysia and RM4,000 per tonne for Sabah and Sarawak. This is to account for rising production costs, it said.

The MPOA also called for tax incentives to support large-scale replanting initiatives, which are critical in protecting the sector’s productivity, supporting its supply chain and maintaining its competitiveness.

Earlier in his speech, Fadillah said the palm biodiesel industry was an integral part of the palm oil industry and its growth would stimulate local demand for CPO, empowering it to set prices rather than merely following market trends.

“As an example, our current B10 (biodiesel programme) implementation in the transport sector is just beginning and we envision moving towards nationwide B20 implementation which is expected to increase CPO consumption to over one million tonnes per annum,” he said.

Fadillah said these commitments were firmly embedded in various national government policies, including the 12th Malaysia Plan, National AgriCommodity Policy 2021-2030, National Automotive Policy 2020 and National Energy Policy 2022-2040.