India's restrictions on imports of refined palm oil will lead to a price war between the world's two biggest suppliers of the commodity, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia said on Thursday. The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued a notification on Wednesday declaring that the import of refined palm oil is amended from 'Free' to 'Restricted.'

Indian refiners have stopped buying Malaysian-palm-oil for shipments in November and December fearing New-Delhi could raise import-taxes or enforce other measures to curtail imports from Kuala Lumpur, five-traders told Reuters. Lower purchases by India, the biggest buyer of Malaysian palm oil so far in 2019, could lead to higher-inventories and put pressure on Malaysian-palm-oil prices, but help rival-Indonesia in raising its shipments to India.

Malaysian authorities have imposed fines of around USD 100-million on 80-entities, intensifying their pursuit of people allegedly linked to the massive 1MDB corruption-scandal, the anti-graft chief said. The people and entities targeted are accused of receiving money pilfered from 1MDB via an-account-linked to Najib. The fines are linked to a-wide-ranging-probe into billions of dollars that were looted from state-investment-fund 1MDB between 2009 and 2014.