The Income-tax department is conducted searches at multiple premises of Chinese telecom major Huawei in the country as part of a tax evasion investigation.

 

Raids are going at the company’s premises in Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru in Karnataka since yesterday. Officials checked Huawei’s financial documents, account books and company records as part of a tax evasion investigation, as per the sources.

 

Some records have been seized too in the exercise.

 

Meanwhile, responding to the ongoing raids, the Chinese company said that its operations in the country were “firmly compliant” with the law.

 

“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,” a statement from the company read.

 

Huawei has also been kept out of trials for 5G services by the Centre but telecom operators have been allowed to source telecom gear from Huawei and ZTE under their old agreements for maintaining their networks.

 

Last year too, the tax department had conducted searches against Chinese mobile communication and handset manufacturing companies like Xiaomi and Oppo and their linked persons and claimed to have detected alleged unaccounted income worth over Rs 6,500 crore due to violation of the Indian tax law and regulations.

 

Earlier this week, the IT ministry blocked 54 more apps with Chinese links, including Tencent Xriver, Nice Video baidu, Viva Video Editor, and gaming app Garena Free Fire Illuminate, citing security and privacy concerns.

 

The stepped up action against Chinese backed companies or entities operating in India comes in the backdrop of the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh.