JAKARTA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government's decision to launch crude palm oil (CPO) export tax exemption from Nov. 1 is aimed at boosting CPO export amid the global financial crisis, an official said here on Thursday.

    "We delete the tax export to zero, and hope to achieve the target of 13 million tons for this year's export," the deputy of Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Bayu Khrisnamurti told reporters.

    As the biggest CPO producer in the world, Indonesia's current CPO is overstocked by more than 2 million tons and exporters suffer big losses.

    "We will push both domestic and export market to normalize the condition," he said. The country's CPO production rose by 4.1 percent to 16.70 million tons in 2007 from 16.05 million tons a year earlier.

    Indonesia's CPO export is projected at 13.95 million tons in 2008 as production will increase to 18.30 million tons.

    The state-owned oil firm Pertamina and state-owned power company PLN have decided to purchase CPO as mandated by the government. In October 2007, the Indonesian government launched anew regulation in which demanding manufacturing companies use at least 2.5 percent biofuel in their fuel consumption. These efforts were expected to reduce their dependency on fossil fuel.