KOTA KINABALU, Dec 20 (Bernama) — A total of 27,000 rubber smallholders in Sabah are eligible for the Rubber Production Incentive (IPG) which will be disbursed from January next year.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Unggah Embas said they were made up of 10,000 active rubber smallholders and 17,000 other smallholders and owners of immature rubber smallholdings.
He said so far, 7,000 rubber smallholders transaction authorisation permits (PAT-G) had been issued to smallholders to facilitate disbursement of the incentives.
“The response from smallholders has been encouraging compared to two years ago and more PAT-G cards will be issued later,” he told reporters after attending a briefing on the state-level IPG disbursement here Saturday.
He said the Sabah Rubber Industry Board (LIGS) would manage the registration and payment of the IPG those who were eligible for the incentive.
Earlier, he said an initial allocation of RM100 million for the IPG was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in the 2015 Budget to help smallholders tide over their woes following the drop in the price of the Malaysian Rubber Grade SMR20 to RM4.60 a kg.
“In order to claim the IPG, smallholders must present two documents, namely a sales receipt and a PAT-G card as evidence they are eligible for the assistance,” he said.
— BERNAMA
