The Income Tax department on Wednesday searched Chinese telecom company Huawei’s offices in Delhi, Gurugram and Bengaluru, according to The Times of India.
The tax officials questioned senior management officials of the company, according to the newspaper.
Huawei confirmed that its offices were visited by the Income Tax department officials, PTI reported. “Huawei is confident our operations in India are firmly compliant to all laws and regulations,” the company said in a statement. “We will approach related Government departments for more information and fully cooperate as per the rules and regulations and follow the right procedure.”
In May, India had excluded Huawei and another Chinese telecom vendor ZTE from conducting trials of 5G technology in India.
The decision was made against the backdrop of tensions along the Indo-China border and New Delhi’s crackdown on technology from the neighbouring country.
In December, the Income Tax department had conducted searches at the premises of several Chinese smartphone brands such as Xiaomi and Oppo, according to PTI.
The officials claimed that they had found irregularities worth Rs 5,500 crore in two companies manufacturing Chinese mobile phones, The Hindu reported. The officials added that since the firms had not disclosed transactions with associate companies, they were liable to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 crore.
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