Finnish handset maker Nokia became the centre of a tax scandal as a team of Indian Income-Tax officials on Tuesday raided its factory near Chennai on charges of alleged tax evasion worth Rs 3,000 crore (30 billion).
"Earlier today, tax officials visited Nokia's manufacturing unit in Chennai. Nokia is fully cooperating to ensure they get the necessary information to help in their inquiry," said a Nokia spokesperson.
This comes at a time when the Indian government has started taking action to clamp down on tax evasion to raise its tax revenues.
The government has earned Rs 3.7 lakh crore (Rs 3.7 trillion) as net tax receipts during April-November 2012, while total expenditure was about Rs 8.7 lakh crore (Rs 8.7 trillion).
During April-November, the fiscal deficit stood at Rs 4.13 lakh crore (Rs 4.13 trillion), or 80.4 per cent of the full year target, about five per cent lower than the corresponding period the previous year.
"We just started investigation and cannot reveal much on it.
"We have some information that they are not deducting tax on the payments that they are making to the parent company in Finland.
Based on that we have started this survey and if our expectation is correct, then it will result in about Rs 2,500-3,000 crore (Rs 25-30 billion) of tax collection for past seven years, 2005 onwards," a senior I-T official told Business Standard,
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