Jakarta. The Attorney General’s Office is investigating alleged export price manipulation involving crude palm oil (CPO) exporters, a practice that has become a growing government concern and contributed to the introduction of new export centralization policies for natural resource commodities.

“We are currently in the investigation stage regarding alleged manipulation or transfer pricing practices,” Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, director of investigations at the Attorney General’s Office, said in Jakarta on Monday.

Syarief said the investigation has been underway for about a month and that prosecutors recently received supplementary data from Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa concerning 10 companies suspected of manipulating CPO export transactions.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors have questioned several witnesses, although Syarief did not disclose their identities.

Earlier, Purbaya confirmed that authorities were investigating allegations of export value manipulation involving several major companies.

According to Purbaya, the inquiry has been ongoing for several months, with the government awaiting updates from the Attorney General’s Office and state auditors regarding the findings.

Purbaya said the government had identified strong indications of export manipulation practices, ranging from under-invoicing -- in which exporters report lower export values than actual transactions -- to transfer pricing schemes.

He explained that the alleged transfer pricing mechanism involved companies selling export goods to affiliated entities overseas at artificially low prices before the products were resold to destination markets at significantly higher prices.

During the initial phase of the investigation, authorities examined at least 10 major companies in the crude palm oil sector suspected of engaging in under-invoicing or transfer pricing practices. Similar indications have also been identified in Indonesia’s coal sector, Purbaya said.

“I selected the 10 largest companies for examination, but in total, we have reviewed more than 15 companies. That is only in the CPO sector. We have also found interesting indications in the coal sector,” he said.