NEW DELHI: The income tax department has conducted searches at the premises of the Chinese tech giant Huawei as a part of a tax evasion investigation. This is the second raid on the Chinese mobile makers in the past two months.
As per the sources, during the raid, the official looked at financial documents, account books and company records as part of a tax evasion investigation against the company. Some records have been seized too. The raids were conducted at Delhi, Gurugram (Haryana) and Bengaluru in the Karnataka office of Huawei.
However, Huawei in its part said it fully cooperates as per the rules and regulations and follows the right procedure.“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 are 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 said in a statement.
The government has been cracking down on Chinese firms in one or other pretext ever since the relationship between the two soured after the Galwan military stand-off in the Ladakh region in 2020.
In December last year, the government raided the offices of Chinese mobile manufacturers — Xiaomi and Oppo — and claimed to have detected alleged unaccounted income worth over Rs 6,500 crore. Earlier this week, the Information and Technology ministry blocked 54 apps citing a threat to the country’s security.