India’s Income Tax Department Raids Local Offices of Chinese Companies Including Xiaomi, OPPO and OnePlus

India’s Income Tax Department has conducted raids of the offices and manufacturing plants of a range of firms including Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus and Foxconn in a major crackdown, Business Standards reported on Thursday.

According to the report, the raids started on Tuesday evening when officials from the department conducted a surprise raid at several offices, including Redmi, OPPO and Foxconn’s manufacturing unit at Sunguvarchatram near Sriperumbudur.

India’s Economic Times reported on December 23 that the raids continued until the end of December 22. The tax department had not made any official announcement until the late evening, but individuals familiar with the matter said factories, godowns, offices and the residences of senior executives of the companies and some of their distributors were searched. Executives of some companies in India have also been questioned.

The report quoted an Indian official as saying that the raids were based on “actionable intelligence inputs” on “several violations” by the Chinese firms. In certain cases, losses were booked despite the import bills showing a profit.

In addition, some financial technology companies are also within the scope of search operations.

Xiaomi responded on December 22, saying, “As a responsible company, we attach great importance to ensuring that we abide by all laws in India. We are fully cooperating with relevant Indian departments to ensure that they have all the information they need.”

OPPO also said in a statement, “As an invested partner in India, we highly respect and abide by the law of the land. We will continue to fully cooperate with authorities concerned as per the procedure.”

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OnePlus has not responded to the situation yet, while Foxconn said it is still learning about the situation.

This is not the first time Chinese companies have been subjected to such raids. Several ZTE offices in India were raided in August and executives were questioned on suspicion of tax evasion, Business Standards reported.

According to Mobile Devices Monitor, India’s smartphone market is dominated by Chinese players, with Xiaomi accounting for about 23%, Vivo for about 15%, Realme for about 15% and OPPO for about 10%.