Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Aug 2: Three Chinese mobile phone companies are being investigated by the government for allegedly evading taxes, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The three firms are Oppo, Vivo India, and Xiaomi, the minister responded to supplements during the question period.
She added, “duty evasion we think is roughly 2,981 crore.” The Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has issued a notice to mobile business Oppo for a total customs duty of 4,389 crore and these are on the grounds of mis-declaration of certain items resulting in short payment of customs tax
“Undervaluation of imported goods for the purpose of payment of customs duty, that we think is an evasion of Rs 1,408 crore,” she said.
She said that, in contrast to the demand of 4,389 crore, they had agreed to deposit 450 crore freely. She mentioned Xiaomi as another mobile company that deals with constructed MI mobile phones when speaking of the other businesses.
She informed the House that Vivo India is the third business, for which a demand notice for 2,217 crore had also been issued and for which they had made a voluntary deposit of 60 crores.
In addition to this, the ED is investigating 18 firms that were founded by the same group as Vivo and where the founders voluntarily sent 62 crore rupees as a deposit, despite the fact that the parent company’s total sales outside of India are 1.25 lakh crore.
