I-T raids Huawei over tax evasion; company says operations ‘compliant with law’
The raids, which were launched at the company’s premises in Delhi, Bengaluru and Gurugram on Tuesday, continued on Wednesday.
The Income Tax (I-T) department conducted searches at several premises of Chinese telecom company Huawei as part of an alleged tax evasion probe, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
The raids, which were launched at the company’s premises in Delhi, Bengaluru and Gurugram on Tuesday, continued on Wednesday.
During the searches, the I-T officials went through financial documents, account books and records of the company, its Indian businesses, and overseas transactions to ascertain any irregularities. They seized a few documents and also questioned some company officials, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, the Chinese telecom firm said its operations in the country were “firmly compliant” with the law.
“We have been informed of the visit of Income Tax team to our office and also of their meeting with some personnel. Huawei is confident our operations in India is firmly compliant to all laws and regulations. We will approach related government departments for more information and fully cooperate as per the rules and regulations and follow the right procedure,” the company added.
The I-T department is yet to issue any statement on the matter.
India left out Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE from trials of 5G networks last year. Several countries including the US and UK have kept Huawei out of the development and roll-out of their 5G networks.
On December 21, the I-T department had conducted pan-India raids on top Chinese mobile phone makers such as Xiaomi and Oppo, citing non-compliance of the regulatory mandate for disclosure of transactions, due to which they could face a penalty of up to ₹1,000 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate, too, has conducted searches and frozen assets of Chinese-controlled companies and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) dishing out instant loans through mobile apps in India.
In January, the central anti-money laundering probe agency launched a probe against China-backed fintech lenders on the basis of various FIRs registered by the Criminal Investigation Department in Bengaluru. Several persons complained of availing loans from these apps and later facing harassment from recovery agents.
On Monday, the government banned 54 Chinese apps over privacy, security and espionage concerns, saying that they were clones of previously taken down applications that obtained critical permissions to collect sensitive user data. As many as 267 apps were earlier blocked in 2020, citing privacy and security threats.
India and China have been locked in a border row along the line of actual control in Ladakh since May 2020.
