Half of 300,000 smallholders yet to claim IPG payment

About 50 per cent of the 300,000 rubber smallholders in the country have not submitted claims under the rubber production incentive (IPG) scheme.

Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) director-general Datuk Dr Mohd Akbar Md Said said the government had allocated some RM200 million for IPG payment.

"This is because the rubber farmers do not understand the process to make the claims, besides there are confusion among them on the stipulated conditions," he said to reporters after the IPG briefing at Jeli Parliament level here, today.

The event was officiated by Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, who is also Jeli Member of Parliament.

Mohd Akbar said the government introduced the IPG scheme to help ease the burden of smallholders nationwide due to the fall in rubber price, as well as encourage them to continue tapping even though the market price was low.

Through IPG, smallholders will be paid RM0.30 per kilogramme for cuplump at farm-gate level, with 50 per cent dry rubber content.

Mohd Akbar said to-date, Sabah had the most number of smallholders who had made IPG claims totalling about RM7 million.

He said the rubber smallholders who had yet to make claims could submit their respective applications complete with the conditions set to MRB.

"They can submit their applications through rubber buyers or village head's office before the forms are collected by MRB for processing," he said.

He said among the conditions were that the farmers must be Malaysian citizens, registered with MRB, Sabah Rubber Industry Board or Sarawak Department of Agriculture or related agencies such as Felda, Felcra and Risda.

The smallholders also must have rubber transaction authority permit (PAT-G) card, plantation of less than 40.46 hectares, sell rubber in the form of latex or cuplumps, besides submitting related documents such as IPG claims form, monthly sales receipts and copy of PAT-G.

He said MRB with the cooperation Risda, Felcra and Felda would hold more briefing sessions to explain and encourage smallholders to make claims.

Meanwhile, Mustapa said the IPG scheme proved that the government was concerned with the burden faced by the smallholders when the market price of rubber was low.