I-T Department Raids Chinese Tech-Giant Huawei’s Offices Over Tax Evasion

Income Tax Department is carrying out raids at several premises of the Chinese tech-giant, Huawei Technologies. The raids in Delhi, Gurugram and Bengaluru began on Tuesday (15 February) as a part of the larger investigation around tax evasion.

Officials have seized several papers and incriminating documents after going through the company’s account books, financial documents, and records of its domestic and overseas businesses. The department has also prepared a dossier on the firm’s associates, clients, and partners in India and elsewhere.

Huawei has responded in an official statement saying, “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 raids are significant as they come against the backdrop of several rounds of bans on Chinese apps over security and privacy concerns. The latest ban shut 54 such apps, a day prior to these raids.

In addition, the premises of two other Chinese smartphone companies — Oppo and Xiaomi — were raided in December, 2021 by the Income Tax Department, which claimed to have traced an unaccounted income worth Rs 6,500 crore. As for Huawei, last year the telecom giant was disallowed from carrying out 5G trials in the country.

Lately, Huawei which deals in telecommunications and consumer electronics, has been facing the heat not just in India but in several other countries as well. Governments, including that of the United States, have expressed security concerns due to the firm’s alleged links with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

As a consequence, Huawei’s deep penetration in information and communication infrastructure of these countries makes them vulnerable to the Chinese surveillance and cyber-attacks. This has also led to restriction on 5G trials by Huawei in countries like the US, India and Canada. Incidentally, the company was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer of PLA.