AGO Names Two Tax Officials Suspects in PT TPL Pulp Export Manipulation Case
The Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has named two tax auditors from the Ministry of Finance, identified as BP and SR, as suspects in a case involving the manipulation of pulp exports by PT TPL. The two officials allegedly assisted the company in manipulating tax values from its pulp export processes.
Director of Investigation at the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus), Saiful Bahri Siregar, explained that PT TPL has been operating in the pulp processing and forestry industry since 2008. The company conducted export sales of pulp to its affiliates through underinvoicing, a fraudulent practice. The scheme involved PT TPL reporting its exported raw materials as paper grade pulp or bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP), which has a lower market value. In reality, the exported product was dissolving pulp, which commands a significantly higher price.
“Because the value of PT TPL’s products was reduced from its actual value, from 2018 to 2025, the company unlawfully reported the sale of pulp products as something other than what they actually were to PT Asia Pacific Rayon or its affiliates, namely dissolving pulp under the name high alpha pulp,” Saiful stated during a press conference at the AGO Round Building in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, on Wednesday (12/8/2026). “This resulted in a reduction of the corporate tax revenue that should have been received by the state,” he continued.
To facilitate this fraudulent scheme, PT TPL sought assistance from tax officials. Suspect BP served as a supervisor during tax audits of PT TPL in 2020 and 2023, while suspect SR was involved in the audit for 2024. “The suspects BP and SR, at the request of PT TPL, unlawfully failed to perform their supervisory duties, including reviewing the Audit Working Papers (KKP) and Audit Reports (LHP), which were not based on the audit programme they had prepared,” Saiful revealed. “For these actions, the suspects received a sum of money from PT TPL,” he added.
Saiful stated that the actions of PT TPL and the suspects caused an improper reduction in state revenue, resulting in financial losses for the state. “Based on our investigation, the preliminary loss figure is estimated at Rp2 trillion. The official result will be provided by the audit team,” he explained.
For their actions, the two suspects are charged under Article 603 in conjunction with Article 20 letter a or c of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code, in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption, as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001, and subsidiary Article 604 of Law Number 1 of 2023. “The suspects have been detained for 20 days starting today at the Salemba Detention Centre, a branch of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia,” he added.