I-T searches at Chinese telecom firms

NEW DELHI: The income tax department is conducting nationwide searches against leading Chinese telecom companies, including Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus, as part of investigations related to alleged concealment of income.
Sources said the operations, which started on Tuesday and were continuing on Wednesday, covered over a dozen locations, including Bengaluru and Gurgaon.
The latest action follows a similar operation involving ZTE, the Chinese equipment and handset vendor, which allegedly threw up some incriminating data. Some contract manufacturers and vendors for these Chinese players are also under the scanner
While separate investigations have been launched by other economic agencies, income tax sources did not rule out the possibility of a multi-agency probe against some of the companies.
Although the tax department usually releases information on searches almost on a daily basis, on Wednesday it chose to remain silent.
In an emailed statement, a Xiaomi spokesperson said: "As a responsible company, we give paramount importance to ensuring that we are compliant with all Indian laws. As an invested partner in India, we are fully cooperating with authorities to ensure they have all the required information."
A separate statement on behalf of Oppo said: "As an invested partner in India, we highly respect and abide by the law of the land. We will continue to fully cooperate with authorities concerned as per procedure."
Chinese telecom companies are facing action across the world, with the government too reworking norms to allow Indian service providers to procure equipment only from "trusted sources", a move that is expected to bar Huawei and ZTE from the Indian market.
In recent months, Chinese companies have been under the lens in the country with several apps already banned and a crackdown ordered against e-commerce companies which were surreptitiously selling goods in India.
Soon after the Covid-19 outbreak last year, FDI rules were tightened to allow companies from China and other countries sharing a land border with India only through the approval route. Besides, there are curbs on awarding government contracts to Chinese companies.