Duty evasion: FM informs Rajya Sabha of serving notice to Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that Mobile companies Oppo India, Xiaomi India and Vivo India have been served notices by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for duty evasion.

In a written reply Sitharaman said that Oppo Mobiles India Ltd has been served a a show-cause notice demanding Rs 4,403.88 crore, on the basis of an investigation conducted by the DRI. She added that five cases of Customs duty evasion have been registered against Xiaomi Technology India, IANS reported.

The reply also noted that investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed that Vivo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd has remitted an amount of Rs 0.62 lakh crore mainly to China and its controlled territories, out of their total sales of Rs 1.25 lakh crore during the period between July 2017 and March 2021, which works out to 49.91 per cent.

From 2019 to 2022, in respect of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), cases against 43 other such companies have been booked.

Regarding the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the Minister said that the investigating agencies have conducted searches and taken seizure measures against five groups related to the telecom sector which have been found to be tax evasion.