InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA — Indonesia’s Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has revealed alleged export practices in the crude palm oil (CPO) sector that may have caused significant losses to state revenue, involving shipment routes through Singapore.
Speaking during a working meeting with Commission XI of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) on Wednesday (February 4, 2026), Purbaya said Indonesia had for years been “misled” by several CPO exporters who reportedly did not fully disclose their export destinations.
According to Purbaya, a number of companies shipped CPO to the United States via Singapore. However, only the export data to Singapore were reported to Indonesian authorities, while the subsequent shipments to the U.S. were never recorded.
“If a company exports CPO to the U.S. via Singapore, what gets reported to us is only the shipment to Singapore. The data on exports to the U.S. never appears,” Purbaya told lawmakers.
He suggested the scheme was designed to take advantage of Singapore’s relatively low tax regime, allowing profits to be booked at intermediary entities there. As a result, Indonesia allegedly lost substantial potential revenue.
“This means that for years we have been misled by CPO business players. Coal may still be under review, but CPO will definitely be pursued,” Purbaya said, as quoted by InfoSAWIT from Detik on Thursday (February 5, 2026).
Purbaya added that a team from the National Single Window Agency (LNSW) under the Ministry of Finance is conducting an in-depth investigation. The government is also awaiting confirmation on whether shipping data obtained from U.S. authorities can be used as legal evidence in court.
“At the very least, Indonesia now has ship-by-ship data showing quite extraordinary manipulation,” he said.
Using artificial intelligence tools, the ministry has identified around ten major companies suspected of involvement. Preliminary findings indicate that export values reported to Indonesian authorities were, on average, only about half of the prices recorded in the U.S.
“On average, the reported prices were half of those in the U.S., with the margins taken by intermediary companies in Singapore,” Purbaya said.
The government has reiterated its commitment to recovering lost state revenue, particularly from the CPO sector, which remains one of Indonesia’s key export pillars. (T2)
