New Chapter in Transfer Pricing Corruption Case: TPL Named Corporate Suspect
The alleged corruption case involving transfer pricing by PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) between 2008 and 2025 has entered a new chapter after the Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) named the company a corporate suspect.
Saiful Bahri Siregar, Director of Investigations at the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes, said PT TPL was proven to have committed a number of unlawful acts for the company’s own benefit.
These included under-invoicing by altering and manipulating the HS Code of the pulp it produced in terms of characteristics, use, and price value.
“The product should have been dissolving pulp, but it was changed to paper grade pulp, or bleached hardwood kraft pulp, also known as BHKP,” he said at a press conference in Jakarta on Monday (7/9).
The administratively manipulated pulp produced by PT TPL was then sold to Macau Marketing International Ltd abroad, as well as to Asia Pacific Rayon in Indonesia.
Saiful said Toba Pulp Lestari also failed to provide transfer pricing documents (TP Docs) and corporate tax returns (SPT Pajak Badan) to the Tax Service Office as required during the examination of transaction price fairness.
“PT TPL Tbk unlawfully colluded with authorised officials so that no oversight was carried out,” he explained.
In addition, he said the review process and the examination reports (KKP and LHP) were not based on the audit programme prepared by state administrators or state officials.
Saiful explained that through this collusion, the authorised officials did not compare prices against PT TPL’s TP Docs and corporate tax returns.
As a result, he said, the transfer pricing activities carried out by PT TPL are estimated to have caused state financial losses of up to Rp2 trillion.
“Based on the results of the investigation, the team of investigators today has named PT TPL Tbk a suspect as a corporation,” he said.
Previously, Kejagung named two employees of the Directorate General of Taxes at the Finance Ministry as suspects in the transfer pricing corruption case involving PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) between 2008 and 2025.
Kejagung said Toba Pulp Lestari carried out exports through under-invoicing, by declaring its product as paper grade pulp, or bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP).
To smooth the scheme, Toba Pulp sought the help of suspects BP and SR, employees of the Finance Ministry’s Directorate General of Taxes who served as supervisors in the tax examination.
CNNIndonesia.com is still seeking comment from Toba Pulp Lestari regarding the case being handled by Kejagung, as well as the latest developments presented at the press conference at the Attorney General’s Office headquarters.
Toba Pulp Lestari had previously spoken out about the alleged transfer pricing corruption case, which was allegedly used to avoid tax and is being investigated by Kejagung.
Anwar Lawden, a Director and Corporate Secretary of Toba Pulp Lestari, said the company had received information regarding the matter and was currently conducting further review and verification.
“The company will provide further information to the Indonesia Stock Exchange and the public in accordance with applicable laws and regulations once material, relevant, and verifiable information is available,” Anwar said in an information disclosure filed with the Indonesia Stock Exchange on Thursday (20/8).
Anwar added that the company remains committed to carrying out its business activities and fulfilling its tax obligations in accordance with prevailing laws and regulations.