Attorney General's Office examines five Forestry Ministry employees over transfer pricing case
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The investigation team of the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General’s Office has examined five employees of the Ministry of Forestry as witnesses in the investigation into alleged corruption involving transfer pricing by PT TPL Tbk to corporate entities between 2008 and 2025.
Head of the Attorney General’s Office Legal Information Centre, Anang Supriatna, said in a statement in Jakarta on Tuesday that the five witnesses have the initials BP, TR, FY, DN, and RB. However, he did not provide detailed information on the substance of the examination of the five witnesses.
“The examination of witnesses by investigators is conducted to strengthen the evidence and complete the case file in the matter in question,” he said.
He also assured that the investigation process is carried out professionally, independently, and accountably while upholding the presumption of innocence and the principle of prudence.
In this case, Jampidsus investigators have named two suspects, namely BP and SR, as state officials serving as tax audit supervisors.
Regarding the case construction, Director of Investigation at Jampidsus Saiful Bahri Siregar explained that PT TPL is a company engaged in the pulp processing and forestry industry.
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 are alleged to have 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 perform their supervisory functions and by not basing their review of audit working papers and audit result reports on the audit programme that had been prepared.
The actions of PT TPL together with the suspects resulted in an improper reduction of state revenue and caused state financial losses.