Notices issued to three Chinese mobile companies for tax evasion: Nirmala Sitharaman

 The government is looking into cases of alleged tax evasion by three mobile companies of China and notices have been given to them, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed Rajya Sabha on August 2. Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, the minister said the three companies are Oppo, Vivo India and Xiaomi.

The Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has issued a notice to mobile company Oppo for total customs duty of ₹4,389 crore and these are on the grounds of mis-declaration of certain goods leading to a short payment in customs duty, she said, adding, “duty evasion we think is about ₹2,981 crore”.

“Undervaluation of imported goods for the purpose of payment of customs duty, that we think is an evasion of ₹1,408 crore,” she said.

She said voluntarily they have come about to deposit ₹450 crore, much against the demand of ₹4,389 crore.

Regarding the other companies, she said Xiaomi is another mobile company which deals with assembled MI mobile phones.

“Three show-cause notices have been issued to them and the approximate duty liability there is about ₹653 crore. For the three show cause notices, they have been issued, they have deposited only ₹46 lakh,” the minister said.

The third company is Vivo India, for whom also there is a demand notice issued for ₹2,217 crore for which they have deposited ₹60 crore as voluntary deposit, she informed the House.

“Besides these, the ED is looking at 18 companies that were established by the same group Vivo and there they have voluntarily remitted ₹62 crore as deposit but the parent company outside of India has the total sales of ₹1.25 lakh crore.

“Of the ₹1.25 lakh crore total sales, Vivo has transferred through these 18 companies huge amounts of funds and it is believed that Vivo India has, in turn, remitted ₹0.62 lakh crore to its parent company which is outside India,” Ms. Sitharaman said.