JAKARTA, Jan 27: Indonesia is maintaining its zero per cent palm oil export tax in February, while raising the crude palm oil base export prices to $482 a tons from $418 a tons in January, a trade ministry official said on Tuesday.

The export tax will remain at zero in February because the reference price was at $555.98 per tons, Diah Maulida, director general of foreign trade at the trade ministry said.

The minimum reference price for palm oil export tax is $700 a ton. The government uses the average spot price of crude palm oil in Rotterdam, Europe’s vegetable oils market, during the preceding month, as the reference price.

In October, the government removed the export tax on palm oil products, as part of a package of measures intended to shore up confidence in the financial market.

Indonesia, the world’s top producer of palm oil -- used in a wide range of products, from soap to biodiesel -- is forecast to produce 20.25 million tons of the commodity in 2009, against 18.8 million in 2008, the industry association has estimated.—Reuters