KUALA PILAH, April 18 — Only 110,000 out of 500,000 smallholders nationwide have claimed the Rubber Production Incentive (IPG) to date, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali.

He said this was probably caused by poor rubber tapping activities or plantations inherited by their children were left abandoned.

This situation had caused a huge loss to the country from the economic aspect, in addition to the waste of resources, he said.

“It is such a small amount and I’m wondering where did the 500,000 smallholders go? Do they not make claims?

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“Perhaps many have stopped tapping due to the low price of rubber. The plantations are there but they don’t produce anything. This is a loss to the country,” he told reporters after the handing over of contributions to 100 smallholders here, today.

Therefore, he said the Malaysian Rubber Board has been directed to continue with the legalisation process to find out the exact number of active farmers to be assisted, besides solving smallholders inactivity issue despite owning the Rubber Transaction Authorisation Permit (PAT-G).

Mohd Khairuddin said the ministry has also introduced the RRIMniaga application to facilitate smallholders if they were having problems filling the manual form to claim the IPG.

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He explained that starting Jan 1, licensed rubber buyers were required to use the RRIMniaga application and they must insert the name of sellers who have the PAT-G card in the system.

“All business transactions are being done online. Based on the information, we will directly disburse the IPG to smallholders without having to fill any forms,” he said. — Bernama