Chinese mobile cos evade Rs 9,000 cr in tax in India, Rs 1,629 cr recovered

Chinese smartphone makers, including Oppo Mobile, Vivo India and Xiaomi Technology, have been found evading taxes worth Rs 9,000 crore in India, Parliament was informed on Friday.

Data shared by the Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Rajya Sabha showed tax evasion of around Rs 9,000 crore, comprising customs duty and GST, has been detected between 2018-19 and 2022-23.

The government has recovered Rs 1,629.87 crore from the companies during the period.

According to the data, Oppo Mobile India Pvt Ltd has been found evading Rs 5,086 crore in taxes which includes Rs 4,403 crore in customs duty and Rs 683 crore in the form of GST.

Vivo has evaded taxes worth Rs 2,923.25 crore comprising Rs 2,875 crore in customs duty and Rs 48.25 crore in GST, according to the written reply by Chandrasekhar.

Tax evasion of Rs 851.14 crore has been detected in the case of Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd comprising Rs 682.51 crore in customs duty and Rs 168.63 crore in GST.

Chandrasekhar shared that customs duty evasion of Rs 4,389 crore was detected in 2019-20 in the case of Oppo Mobile India Pvt Ltd, out of which Rs 450 crore has been recovered.

Vivo India Mobile Pvt Ltd was found to be evading customs duty of Rs 2,217 crore out of which Rs 72 crore has been recovered in 2020-21.

In 2019-20, Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd was found to be evading custom duty of Rs 653.02 crore out of which Rs 46 lakh has been recovered.

In 2022-23, Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd was found evading Rs 658 crore.

According to the official data, Lenovo has evaded Rs 42.36 crore GST.

Government has been able to recover Rs 1,214.83 crore from Oppo, Rs 168.25 crore from Vivo and Rs 92.8 crore from Xiaomi, as per the official data.

The minister was replying to a question on the number of Chinese handset companies which have evaded taxes and made illegal remittances in India.

Chandrasekhar said that cumulative turnover of Chinese mobile handset companies in 2021-22 was estimated to be Rs 1.5 lakh crore in India.

"The total direct employment generated by them in their manufacturing operations is more than 75,000. They also have sales and operational workforce of around 80,000 workers," the minister said.