Finance Ministry, AGO discuss PHS tax case

JAKARTA: The Finance Ministry and the Attorney General's Office on Monday discussed an alleged tax evasion case involving palm oil company PT Permata Hijau Sawit (PHS), believed to have caused Rp 1.6 trillion in state losses.

"The warrant to start investigating had been sent to the prosecutors' office and contains the names of each suspect," the assistant attorney general for special crimes, M. Amari, said as quoted by Antara.

The discussion was attended by Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo, his director general for taxation, Mochamad Tjiptardjo, and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.

Amari said the case would be handled by the assistant attorney general for general crimes.

"The case is still in its early stages, we don't yet know if there is indication of corruption or not," he said, adding it may take up to 10 days to study the case.

The company allegedly used fallacious invoices to avoid paying taxes.

Amari explained the review was only a small part of the whole PHS case. "The state losses amount to about Rp 1.6 trillion in total," he said. - JP