Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said a Rubber Production Incentive (IPG) programme will be carried out in January next year to assist rubber smallholders in the State.
“The Government had approved allocation to carry out the Rubber Production Incentive programme which will be carried out from January 2015 onwards.”
“The IPG is a mechanism where we assist the smallholders during the falling rubber prices situation nowadays.
“The programme will start when the SMR20 FOB is at or below RM4.60 per kg, the Government will pay for each cuplump RM0.30 per kg (50 per cent dry rubber content – DRC), a maximum of RM0.90 per kg of latex based on DRC and a maximum of RM0.60 per kg of unsmoked sheets rubber (USS) based on DRC.
“With this, we hope that the smallholders can get additional income in addition to the market price the can get. We believe this can help alleviate the burden they face when prices fall.
“We also hope as a result they can continue to tap rubber as the country needs no less than one million tonnes of rubber for use in industries in the country. So these are the two goals we hope to achieve when the IPG is implemented.”
He said this to reporters at a press conference at Wisma Pertanian, Saturday.
Uggah said his visit to the State is to get the latest briefing on the Sabah Rubber Industries Board (LIGS) preparations in carrying out the Rubber Production Incentive.
“As such, I have gone down to the ground in several states to look at the preparations being carried out because what is important is the preparation.
“We want to ensure the preparations are going well so that when we need to carry it out the State will be ready to implement it and the smallholders will benefit and the objective of the Government to implement this programme will be achieved.”
He said the target group are the rubber smallholders comprising rubber tappers who tap their own trees and those who don’t have their own trees but still tap.
“So there is a mechanism to determine how they can claim. In order to claim they must provide an invoice where the rubber has been sold and possess the Permit Authoriti Transaksi Getah (PAT-G) smallholders card which is issued nationwide including in the State. These are the two documents required to claim.
“We have made the decision also in the State that all claims should be forwarded to LIGS. The payment from the Malaysia Rubber Board will be paid to LIGS and LIGS will arrange payment to the smallholders.
“This RM100 million is not a one off payment but an initial seed money. Under the programme when the price of SMR 20 FOB Rubber reaches or exceeds RM8.25 per kg then we would collect some cess to the fund so the fund would be sustainable .
“If this programme is to be implemented within 12 months it would cost us half a billion ringgit nationwide.”
“In Sabah, I was informed there are 27,000 smallholders but only 10,000 are active while for the remaining 17,000 smallholders perhaps their trees are not mature yet.
“I am happy with the process of preparation in the State as they have their own operation room and they have the names of the smallholders and we today have decided they would also be issuing the PAT-G cards to smallholders.
“The application for the cards are ongoing still and so far, we have received about 7,000 applications for the cards so there are about 3,000 to 4,000 more to go and I’m impressed with the preparations and I’m sure at the end of the month they will be able to get (the card).” LIGS is covering the whole State and they are also giving subsidies and also buying so they are close to the smallholders and so it’s easier for them to get the necessary information required, he added.
The programme to register smallholders and provide them with cards has been ongoing for two years now.