Government Scrutinizes Sukanto Tanoto Tax Case
Friday, 19 January, 2007 | 14:58 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government submitted the investigation of alleged tax manipulation of the Asian Agri Group to the Tax Directorate General. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said the Tax Directorate General has already formed an investigation team to scrutinize the alleged tax manipulation involving the plantation company that belongs to Sukanto Tanoto, Indonesia’s richest man last year according to Forbes magazine.

“It’s been examined now to check the truth of this information,” said Sri Mulyani in Jakarta, Wednesday (17/1).

The Tax Directorate General’s special investigative team acknowledged it is still collecting information in relation to the case and will start investigating after acquiring strong evidence. “This allegation has already been there since December (2006) and we need to check it carefully,” Director General of Intelligence and Investigation at the Tax Directorate General, Mochamad Tjiptarjo, told Tempo at his office.

He confirmed the indication of tax manipulation committed by Asian Agri Group. But the Tax Directorate General still has to check the total of the tax the company did not pay to the state. “The amount can be around Rp1.1 trillion,” said Tijptarjo. The checking, he said, involves many parties including the Reporting and Financial Transaction Analysis.

As already reported, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) received a claim of tax manipulation allegations of Asian Agri from the group’s former financial controller, Vincentius Amin Sutanto. The report contained data on the company’s tax deviation from 2001 to October 2006, with an estimated value of around Rp1.1 trillion.

A Tempo source said that the outline of the tax manipulation used three modes: transfer pricing, fictitious hedging and fictitious cost posting. Asian Agri’s Director Eddy Lukas disputed the company data and tax manipulation practices. He said that there is a possibility that the data was designed on the purpose to describe only Asian Agri’s losses. “If we continue to suffer losses, how can we pay taxes to the state in 2004 amounting to Rp1.07 trillion?”

ANTON APRIANTO