NEW DELHI: Chinese mobilemaker Vivo has said stopping its consignment at Delhi airport by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is death knell for the firm’s exports from India.
The company, in a letter to the Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) alleged that the DRI has withheld the consignment of 26,840 mobile phones worth $15 million, which were to be exported to Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
The consignment is believed to have been held up due to issues of valuation and device models. The Indian authority is checking the IMEI number of each and every handset. Since the boxes are opened now, the consignment is now unfit for export. As per the reports, the company in an email to ICEA has said that the entire consignment is currently scattered at the Delhi airport, and is no longer fit for exports, until it has again been moved to factory, undergone complete inspection and then repackaged.
“This being the festive season, this action by the DRI rings a death knell for us exporting out of India unless the DRI actions at the airport do not cease immediately and our goods released,” Vivo reportedly wrote in the email to ICEA.
However, Vivo has refused to comment on this matter. Almost every Chinese mobile maker, be it Oppo, Xiaomi or Vivo are under the radar of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for their duty evasion.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in parliament (Monsoon session) said the DRI issued notice to Oppo for a total customs duty of Rs 4,389 crore on the grounds of misdeclaration of certain goods, leading to a short payment in duties. Duty evasion by Oppo is of Rs 2,981 crore.
The DRI detected customs duty evasion of nearly Rs 2,217 crore by Vivo Mobile India. ED seized Rs 5,551.27 crore from Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd – a wholly-owned subsidiary of the China-based Xiaomi group – under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in connection with illegal remittances made by the firm in February this year. India has also banned more than 300 Chinese apps, including Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s TikTok.
Consignment no longer fit for exports, says Vivo
The company in an email to Cellular and Electronics Association has said that the entire consignment is currently scattered at the Delhi airport, and is no longer fit for exports, until it has again been moved to factory, undergone complete inspection and then repackaged