This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 31, 2017 - June 6, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The Temerloh High Court has struck out settlers’ compensation claims against the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) after they alleged Felda fixed their palm oil extraction rate (OER) at a lower level compared with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s (MPOB) rate.

Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that all 364 settlers of Jengka B and 350 settlers of Mempaga in Pahang had withdrawn their claims against Felda.

“Further to our announcement dated March 2, 2017, we would like to update that on May 26, 2017, plaintiffs had withdrawn all the claims filed against the defendants. The Temerloh High Court later ordered the entire settlers’ claims to be struck out with no liberty to file a fresh.

“In this case, the settlers demanded special damages, general damages, and exemplary damages as well as interest for alleging Felda and Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd for fraud, breach of trust, conspiracy, mischief, misrepresentation etc for the determination of OER, where the settlers claimed that the OER given to them was lower than the rate set by MPOB,” FGV said.

According to FGV, the court had ordered the Jengka B and Mempaga settlers to pay the costs amounting to RM30,000 to Felda and Felda Palm Industries.