Hunting Rogue Companies, Purbaya Leverages AI!

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has detailed the government’s strategy to hunt down rogue companies involved in under-invoicing practices. The ministry is deploying artificial intelligence (AI) technology to identify firms that have caused leakages in state revenue.

“We have a fairly sophisticated trading intelligence system, and we have also applied AI to it so that it can work faster to monitor or find out who is playing games,” Purbaya said during the CNBC Indonesia Economic Update 2026, quoted on Tuesday (23/6/2026).

Purbaya explained that the handling of under-invoicing began with the formation of a special investigation team within the Ministry of Finance. “We formed a special team in the Ministry of Finance called Team 10. We looked at the shipping data; I first checked CPO, the 10 largest CPO companies here, and what their exports to Singapore were,” he continued.

The ministry then accessed data from the destination countries, noting that the same 10 companies also placed funds in the United States, beyond Singapore. “It turns out we also have access to the data of the destination countries. I took the US as an example first, how did those 10 do it? We took three ships from that company at random, checked the results, and it became apparent,” he explained.

The ministry recorded the selling prices of CPO in Singapore and the US, finding that prices were significantly higher in the US compared to Singapore. “From here to Singapore, it might be sold for 5, but in America, the price is not 5 but 10. So I lose 50 per cent of the export tax and also the income tax. And then the proceeds do not come back here; some are kept abroad,” he stressed.

Purbaya added that his ministry is continuing to coordinate with the Attorney General’s Office and the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) regarding the state revenue leakage. “I think, under the President’s direction, I will follow up on this with the Attorney General’s Office and BPKP. If this can be recouped, then going forward, income tax will be larger, from exports and from the dollar supply here,” he stated.