PUTRAJAYA, Dec 15 (Bernama) — Some additional incentives are being drafted to help around 368,000 rubber tappers and smallholders face a slump in the commodity’s price and enable to continue producing rubber.
Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the proposed aid should not only be a one-off payment but also be provided in the long term.
“Realising that the one-off payment is only a stop-gap measure, we need to look at proposals to ensure the sustainability of the rubber industry,” he told a media conference after attending a cabinet meeting to discuss on ways to increase income for smallholders in the commodity industries here today.
Mohd Shafie said the proposal for the additional incentives was in the discussion stage with the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry, and it would be refined before being presented to the cabinet for consideration.
He said the proposal was in addition to the Rubber Production Incentive (IPG) with an allocation of RM100 million, which was announced in the 2015 Budget to ease the smallholders’ economic burden by increasing their income in view of fluctuating rubber prices.
Meanwhile Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas, who also attended the meeting said that some 120,000 smallholders and rubber tappers nationwide had applied to receive the IPG aid.
“We are currently hard at work going down to the field in every state to observe the progress on the application process which is scheduled to be completed by month’s end,” he said.
The IPG programme will be mobilised when the physical price of Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) grade 20 reaches RM4.60 per kg and the cup lump prices go below RM1.75 per kg, whereby its implementation will be through providing incentives for the current month based on the previous month’s average Freight On Board (FOB) prices for SMR 20.
The incentive involves 30 sen per kg for cup lump rubber with 50 per cent of dried rubber content (DRC) and a maximum of 90 sen for each pound of latex based on the DRC percentage and a maximum of 60 sen for each kilogramme of rubber pieces before processing based on its DRC.
— BERNAMA
