Taxmen raid Oppo, Xiaomi, One Plus offices

In a major crackdown on Chinese mobile companies, the Income Tax department is conducting searches on leading Chinese mobile companies across the country.

Mobile companies including Oppo, Xiaomi and One Plus are being covered in this search, sources told ANI on Wednesday.

More than two dozen premises are covered in the search which started on Tuesday.

"Raids are ongoing in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Greater Noida, Kolkata, Guwahati, Indore and some other places," sources told ANI.

Sources told ANI that some fintech companies are also covered in this search.

Chief executive officers of these companies are covered in this search and currently, they are being interrogated by the Income Tax sleuths.

Further, sources informed that the search was conducted on the intelligence inputs of huge tax evasion by these Chinese mobile firms.

They were under the radar for a long time and when the income tax department got concrete intelligence of tax evasion then raids were conducted on these companies.

According to sources, it is early to reveal details about the ongoing search as the sleuths are on job but a substantial amount of digital data evidencing evasion of tax has been found and seized.

Earlier in August, a Chinese government-controlled telecom vendor, ZTE was searched.

Searches were conducted at a total of five premises of ZTE, including the corporate office, the residence of the foreign director, the residence of the company secretary, the account person and the cash handler of the company.

During the search on ZTE, the examination of import bills vis-a-vis sale bills shows that there was a gross profit of approximately 30 per cent on the trading of the equipment, though the company had been booking "huge" losses over the years.

Investigation revealed that the losses are being booked by the company through bogus expenses in respect of services provided by it.

A few such recipients have been identified in whose case substantial expenses have been booked over the years.

These entities have been found to be non-existent at their addresses, sources added.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters