AGO questions Forestry Ministry staff over pulp linked to PT TPL
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Investigators from the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General’s Office are examining pulp linked to PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) by questioning employees of the Ministry of Forestry as witnesses in the investigation of alleged transfer pricing corruption by the company.
Head of the Attorney General’s Office Legal Information Centre Anang Supriatna explained in Jakarta on Wednesday that pulp, or paper pulp, which is a product of PT TPL, originates from timber. Therefore, investigators sought information from Forestry Ministry employees to determine whether the timber obtained by PT TPL was legal or illegal.
“In this case, corruption investigators are ascertaining whether the timber used to produce the pulp was obtained with permits or illegally. If permits exist, then taxes apply. If it is illegal, then it constitutes a criminal offence, that is all,” he said.
He stated that the examination of Forestry Ministry employees took place on Tuesday (18/8) and Wednesday. The employees are from echelon three and below.
“If I am not mistaken, there were five witnesses yesterday from the Ministry of Forestry, and today there is also an examination of approximately four Forestry employees. So, there have been around nine in total,” he revealed.
Investigators at Jampidsus have named two suspects in the case of alleged corruption through transfer pricing by PT TPL Tbk to corporate entities from 2008 to 2025, namely BP and SR, who are state officials serving as tax audit supervisors.
Since 2008, PT TPL has conducted export sales of pulp to its affiliates by reporting values and product types that do not match their actual characteristics, or through under-invoicing practices.
At the export stage from Indonesia, the product was reported as paper grade pulp or bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP). However, based on its characteristics, use and market price, the product is actually dissolving pulp.
According to him, from 2018 to 2025, PT TPL also reported sales of pulp products to PT Asia Pacific Rayon as dissolving pulp under the name High Alpha Pulp.
These actions allegedly resulted in a reduction of tax revenue that should have been received by the state.
In this process, PT TPL allegedly sought assistance from BP, who was the tax audit supervisor for PT TPL in 2020 and 2023, and SR, who was the tax audit supervisor in 2024.
The two suspects allegedly fulfilled the request by failing to carry out their supervisory functions and by not basing their review of audit working papers and audit reports on the audit programme that had been prepared.