Nokia's Chennai plant head quits

Prakash Katama, director of Nokia India’s plant at Sriperumbudur near here, has quit. The company said he would be a consultant for a specified period. V Sembian, head of product and process engineering, will be the factory’s new director.

Meanwhile, sources in the union said about 200 of the 700 trainees at the factory had accepted the voluntary retirement package offered by the company.

The package to trainees includes the gross salary for three months and compensation of Rs 2 lakh.

The employees’ union said about 200 trainees working in the first shift at the factory had given their resignation to the management.

Responding to an e-mail query, Nokia India said, “We will not be able to share the specifics with you. These discussions are with employees, and we won’t comment any further on this.”

The Sriperumbudur factory is caught in a tax dispute. Owing to this, it couldn’t be transferred to Microsoft, which had agreed to buy Nokia in a euro 5.44-billion deal.

The tax department and courts have attached Nokia India’s assets, including the Sriperumbudur factory, due to an alleged Rs 21,000-crore tax evasion case. Recently, the Tamil Nadu government had issued a Rs 2,400-crore tax notice on the company.

On Tuesday, the high court here heard Nokia India’s argument related to its petition against the tax notice issued by the state government. The court adjourned the matter for Wednesday.